DECEMBER 2016 Unemployment Data–the Full Count*
(U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT: 4.7%* [Analyses]
| White |
4.3%
|
| African American |
7.8%
|
| Hispanic |
5.9%
|
| Asian** |
2.6%
|
| Persons with a disability** |
9.0%
|
| Men 20 years and over |
4.4%
|
| Women 20 years and over |
4.3%
|
| Teens (16-19 years) |
14.7%
|
| Black teens |
25.7%
|
| Officially unemployed |
7.5 million
|
*If the LFPR were at its pre-recession level, the unemployment rate in December 2016 would have been 6.1% instead of 4.7%. [See “The Labor Force Participation Rate and Its Trajectory”]
HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT
| Working part-time because can’t find a full-time job: | 5.6 million |
| People who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics (of which about 1.7 million** searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available for work during the reference week.) | 5.7 million |
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 2015, that number was 17.4 million, 15.7 percent of full-time, full-year workers (estimated from Current Population Survey, Bur. of the Census, 8/2016). The poverty threshold in 2015 was $24,257 for a family of four.
In November 2016, the latest month available, the number of job openings was 5.5 million. Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary, January 10, 2017. Thus there are approximately 3.4 job-wanters for each available job.