SEPTEMBER 2015 Unemployment Data — the Full Count*
(U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)
Official Unemployment: 5.1%*
White: 4.4%
African American: 9.2%
Hispanic: 6.4%
Asian**: 3.6%
Persons with a disability**: 10.4%
Men 20 years and over: 4.7%
Women 20 years and over: 4.6%
Teens (16-19 years): 16.3%
Black teens: 31.5%
Officially unemployed: 7.9 million
*If the LFPR were at its pre-recession level, the unemployment rate in September 2015 would have been 7.4% 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: 6.0 million
People who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics (of which about 1.9 million** searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available for work during the reference week.): 6.0 million
Total: 19.9 million (12.2% 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, Bureau of the Census, 9/2014).
Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary
Unemployment Rate Vastly Understates Labor Market Weakness, EPI
Chartbook: The Legacy of the Great Recession, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities