Unemployment Data – September 2016

SEPTEMBER 2016 Unemployment Data–the Full Count*
(U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT: 5.0%*[Analyses]

White
     4.4%
African American
8.3%
Hispanic
6.4%
Asian**
           3.9%
Persons with a disability**
  8.7%
Men 20 years and over
4.7%
Women 20 years and over
4.4%
Teens (16-19 years)
15.8%
Black teens
27.2%
Officially unemployed
7.9 million

*If the LFPR were at its pre-recession level, the unemployment rate in September 2016 would have been 6.1%  instead of 5.0%. [See “The Labor Force Participation Rate and Its Trajectory”]

HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT

Working part-time because can’t find a full-time job: 5.9 million
People who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics (of which about 1.8 million** searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available for work during the reference week.) 6.1 million
Total: 19.9 million (12.0% of the labor force)

Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf See also Current Employment Statistics–Highlights For BLS State and area data, see Geographic Information

**Not seasonally adjusted.
*See Uncommon Sense #4 for an explanation of the unemployment measures, and Is the Decline in the Labor Force Participation Rate During This Recession Permanent?.

In addition, millions more were working full-time, year-round, yet earned less than the official poverty level for a family of four. In 2014,  that number was 19.3 million, 17.7 percent of full-time, full-year workers (estimated from Current Population Survey, Bur. of the  Census, 9/2015).

In August 2016, the latest month available, the number of job openings was 5.4 million. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, October 12, 2016.  Thus there are approximately 3.7 job-wanters for each available job.

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary

Unemployment Rate Vastly Understates Labor Market Weakness EPI

Chartbook: The Legacy of the Great Recession(CBPP)

See BLS slides