AUGUST 2015 Unemployment Data–the Full Count*
(U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT: 5.1%*
| White |
4.4% |
| African American |
9.5% |
| Hispanic |
6.6% |
| Asian** |
3.5% |
| Persons with a disability** |
10.2% |
| Men 20 years and over |
4.7% |
| Women 20 years and over |
4.7% |
| Teens (16-19 years) |
16.9% |
| Black teens |
31.3% |
| Officially unemployed |
8.0 million |
*If the LFPR were at its pre-recession level, the unemployment rate in August 2015 would have been 7.2% instead of 5.1%. [See “The Labor Force Participation Rate and Its Trajectory”]
HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT
| Working part-time because can’t find a full-time job: |
6.5 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.) |
5.9 million |
| Total: 20.4 million (12.5% of the labor force) | |
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf See also Current Employment Statistics–Highlights
**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 2013, the latest year available, that number was 18.5 million, 17.5 percent of full-time, full-year workers (estimated from Current Population Survey, Bur. of the Census, 9/2014).
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
Unemployment Rate Vastly Understates Labor Market WeaknessEPI
Chartbook: The Legacy of the Great Recession (CBPP)