June 6, 2025
Unemployment data–May 2025 Charts Related to BLS Employment Release Top ten charts 0f 2024 AEA STATE of WORKING AMERICA Data Library, EPI
Baker, CEPR 6/6/2025 “The year-over-year rate of wage growth was 3.9 percent, in line with its average since late 2023. The annualized rate over the last three months was almost identical at 3.8 percent…..The overall picture in May continues to be positive, although there are some grounds for concern. … there are some signs that are troubling. The job growth was heavily concentrated in healthcare. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this, but given the cuts the sector may be facing in the year ahead, it seems unlikely that it will maintain a robust pace of job growth. We are also seeing weakness in the labor market for young people. ….Also, the sharp drop in the share of unemployment due to voluntary quits suggests that workers are concerned about their labor market prospects.”
EPI jobs blog, 6/6/25: “Employment in the federal govt fell 22k in April, down 59k since Jan. Even as bad as this is, the devastation to the federal workforce has yet to be fully realized because many workers are on administration leave and more recent federal UI claims data suggest further cutbacks…..These losses in government jobs are not only devastating for the thousands of workers who have lost their jobs. It’s also devastating for the valuable services those workers provide. It’s no wonder that staffing shortages may be compromising complete data collection.” Elise Gould@elisegould.bsky.social
DePillis, Zhang, Casselman NY Times, 6/6/25 “The labor market persevered in May, continuing a consistent run of job creation that has outlasted inflation, interest rate increases and now an on-again-off-again trade war……The steady hiring is an indication that businesses are still seeing enough demand for goods and services that they will fill open roles and add new ones, even if they’re no longer expanding as quickly as they had over the past few years….the annual average pace of job growth, outside the pandemic downturn, is lower than it’s been in over a decade…..Cuts to federal government jobs were offset by gains in state and local government jobs in May….The unemployment rate held steady, but other measures from the monthly survey of households were less encouraging. The labor force shrank by 625,000 in May, and the participation rate — the share of adults working or looking for work — fell by two tenths of a point.”
ZeroHedge, 6/6/25 “Worse, every single month under the Trump admin has been revised lower. “
Baker and Cai, Masking Real Unemployment: The Overall and Racial Impact of Survey Non-Response on Measured Labor Market Outcomes, 3/21
Flexible work: What workers, especially low-wage workers, really want and how best to provide it, Poydock et al, EPI 7/24 Summary: Many workers, especially low-wage workers, aren’t getting key benefits they want—such as paid leave and predictable schedules—because lawmakers are letting companies and employers get away with anti-worker practices.
American Capitalism Has Produced Its Most Remarkable Innovation Yet: Breadlines Savage, Jacobin 5/23 “As one commentator succinctly put it: ‘1) Too many people have jobs so the [Federal Reserve] raises rates to boost unemployment in the name of taming inflation. 2) People lose their jobs, making them need food stamps. 3) Politicians demand those same people get jobs to be eligible for food stamps, but the jobs are now harder to get.'” See a Bloomberg report on lines at food banks. One such line outside a Boston Red Cross facility “stretched the length of two football fields.”
Bivens & Shierholz, EPI 12/18 What labor market changes have generated inequality and wage suppression?
Equitable Growth Research showing rising mortality rates among white Americans suggests that increasing economic insecurity for this group may play a role in increasing mortality. New research shows that one form of insecurity—higher unemployment rates—is strongly associated with higher opioid death rates. The paper, … a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, looks at the connection between unemployment and opioid abuse.
The EMRATIO [the ratio of employed to the the civilian noninstitutional population aged 16 years and over] that is employed.has not fully recovered its pre-crisis level as of 3/24. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=453007#0
Labor force participation rate [labor force as a % of civilian noninstitutional population] recovery since the recession by age, Fed. Res., St Louis. Note: except for those 55 and over, labor force participation rates have not yet recovered pre-crisis levels. 9/19 data. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?graph_id=316679#0
Full-time workers: http://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea06.htm
Many older workers have difficult jobs that put them at risk Working longer is not a viable solution to the retirement crisis, Morrissey, EPI 5/23
Worker Rights and Wages Policy Watch, EPI
Blue Collar Jobs Tracker, CEPR
The Big Shift From Salaries to Bonus-Based Pay, Fuhrmans, WSJ9/24
How Many Weeks of Unemployment Compensation Are Available? CBPP, 6/24
Job Openings Rise in December But Quits Tell the Real Story Mishtalk, 1/24
Union Reformers Made Labor History in 2023. They’re Just Getting Started, Eidlin, In These Times, 1/24
Why Criminal Justice Reform Is Becoming a Corporate Priority, Maddox DMag. 9/23
New Data on Formerly Incarcerated People’s Employment Reveal Labor Market Injustices, Wang & Bertram, Prison Policy Initiative 9/22
The impact of the Raise the Wage Act of 2023, Zipperer, EPI 7/23
Sick Workers Tied to 40% of Food Poisoning Outbreaks, C.D.C. Says, NY Times 6/23
Could 300,000 Job Openings Be Fake? Here’s Why Goldman Thinks They Might Be, Saul, Forbes 5/23
Racial Differences in Unemployment Insurance, Ananat & Gassman-Pines, EconoFact 4/23
Employment of “People with a Disability” Spiked to Record in Hot Labor Market, Richter, Wolf Street 2/3/23
Union membership rate 10.1% in 2022, down from 10.3% in 2021, but numbers up 1/23
Workplace Fatalities Hit Highest Rate Since 2016, Wells, Mfgnet 12/22
As Fed Pushes to ‘Get Wages Down,’ Study Shows CEO Pay Has Soared by 1,460% Since 1978 Workers pay rose by 18.1% between 1978 and 2021, Johnson, Common Dreams, 10/22
On the Clock and Tracked to the Minute, Kantor & Sundaram, NYT 8/15/22 “Offline work–doing math problems…reading printouts, thinking–didn’t register…”
Black Youth: More Likely to Need a Job, Less Likely to Get One, CEPR 8/22
Most Price Increases from Inflation Have Gone to Corporate Profits The inflation panic is causing some Democrats to pivot from social spending to deficit reduction. That’s exactly the wrong approach. / In These Times 5/22
Botched policy responses to globalization have decimated manufacturing employment with often overlooked costs for … workers of color, Scott etal, EPI 1/22
Union membership resumes its fall, Henwood, 1/22
Record number of minimum wage increases set for 2022, Gonzalez, Axios 12/21
The Great Escape The most vulnerable people in America have started the closest thing we’ve seen in a century to a general strike. Dayen, TAP 11/21
A record number of workers are quitting their jobs, empowered by new leverage Rosenberg, Wash.Post, 10/21
Quantifying the Impact of the Fight for $15: $150 Billion in Raises for 26 Million Workers…, Lathrop, Lester, & Wilson, NELP 7/21
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Counted Only Eight Strikes in 2020, Payday Report Counted 1,200, Leon & Elk, INET 7/21
Reforming unemployment insurance, EPI 6/21
American workers are quitting at the highest rate in decades, Fernholz, Quartz 6/21
Identifying the policy levers generating wage suppression and wage inequality, Mishel & Bivens, EPI 5/21
Covid Is Hitting Workers Differently Than the Financial Crisis, Fazzari & Needler 4/21
The Black-White Wage Gap Is as Big as It Was in 1950, , NYT 6/20
Bosses in the US Have Far Too Much Power to Lay Off Workers Whenever They Feel Like It, Sheehan, Jacobin, 6/20
Obsession With Fraud Sabotages U.S. Aid to Millions Without Jobs, Kochkodin, 5/20 Bloomberg
Replacing workers has many costs, Carleton, Conversation 4/20
You’re the Real Job Creator: An interview with Stephanie Kelton, N+1 4/20
What the historically low U.S. unemployment rate means for women workers, Cumming, Equitable Growth, 3/20
The Robots Are Not Coming, Henwood, Jacobin 2/20
Low-wage work is more pervasive than you think” Ross & Bateman, Brookings, 11/19
Labor Historian Staughton Lynd’s Book Is Embraced by Google Workers and Uber Drivers, 10/19
The Military-Industrial Jobs Scam, Tomgram: Harris, Stimpson, and Freeman, 8/19
Black workers are being left behind by full employment, Perry, Brookings 6/19
Want to decrease suicide? Raise the minimum wage, researchers suggest, Cerullo, CBS News, 4/19
The Bogus Justification for Worker Non-Compete Clauses, Vaheesan, On Labor 4/19
Major Work Stoppages in 2018, BLS 2/19
Updated employment multipliers for the U.S. economy, Bivens, EPI 1/19
“…one new manufacturing job in the U.S. results in 7.4 new jobs in other industries. Whereas one new retail job creates just 1.2 new jobs.The only two industries with higher indirect job losses are utilities (9.6 to 1) and real estate and rental leasing (8.8 to 1).” J. Bivens, EPI GRAPHIC 1/19
How shareholder profits conquered capitalism – and how workers can win back its benefits for themselves, Brennan, Conversation, 10/18
Standards Go Out The Window As Employers Struggle To Fill Jobs,
Anti-Union Measure in Missouri Loses by Massive Margin, Baker, CEPR 8/18
Mystery of the Underpaid American Worker, Lindorff, Counterpunch 8/18
Huge Increase in Large Work Stoppages Seen in 2018, Dirnbach, Medium, 7/18
The economy is hot, yet many U.S. workers feel left behind. A new report sheds some light, Van Dam, Wash Post
“In total, RTW laws have led to a 14.2% increase in occupational mortality through decreased unionisation.” Does ‘right to work’ imperil the right to health? The effect of labour unions on workplace fatalities, Zoorob Occup. Envir. Med. 6/18
Disability applications plunge as the economy strengthens, Schwartz, CNBC 6/18
Grand Theft Paycheck: wage theft is pervasive in Corporate America. Good Jobs First, 6/18
Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements —MAY 2017, BLS 6/18
Federal investigators this month identified the largest cluster of advanced black lung cases ever officially recorded.
Medicaid Work Requirement Would Harm Unemployed, Not Promote Work, Katch, CBPP 1/18
Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Experiment Is a Success, 1/18
Union membership rate, at 10.7%, is unchanged in 2017, BLS 1/18
German workers strike for right to two-year, 28-hour working week: metalwork union’s campaign to improve work-life balance, 1/18
Minimum wage hikes in 18 states set for new year, The Hill, 1/18
Employment Hysteresis from the Great Recession, Yagan NBER 9/17
Employment in Europe and the US: the EU’s remarkable strength, Darvas & Pichler, Bruegel 9/17
Where Have All the Workers Gone? An Inquiry into the Decline of the U.S. Labor Force Participation Rate, Krueger, Brookings 9/17
How today’s unions help working people: Giving workers the power to improve their jobs and unrig the economy, Bivens et al, EPI 8/17
US Opioid Use Linked To Unemployment, Moreno, ibtimes, 8/17 NBER studyNew Report Finds Corporate Tax Cuts Boost CEO Pay, Not Jobs, Anderson, IPS 8/17
Macroeconomic Conditions and Opioid Abuse, Hollingsworth et al, NBER 2/17
Why I Dissented, Kashkari explains his vote at FOMC 3/17
‘Superstar Firms’ May Have Shrunk Workers’ Share of Income, Cohen, NYT 3/17
Falling Labor Force Participation: Demographics or Lack of Jobs? Dantas & Wray 2/17
Union membership rate in 2016 is 10.7%, down from 11.1% in 2015 BLS, 1/17 CEPR
Economic Realities in America: By The Numbers, Pearle ABC News 1/17
American Marriage in the Time of the Recession, Campbell, Atlantic 11/16
The U.S. Job Recovery Is a Global Laggard, Kocherlakota, Bloomberg, 10/16
Happy Labor Day! There Has Never Been a Middle Class Without Strong Unions, Schwarz, Intercept 9/16
The State of the Unions 2016: A Profile of Organized Labor in NYC, NYS, & the US, Milkman and Luce, Murphy Ctr for Worker Education, 9/16
Black Workers, Unions, and Inequality Bucknor, CEPR 8/16
When workers don’t get paid sick days, everyone else is more likely to get sick, Paquette, Wash. Post, 8/16
‘Middle class’ used to denote comfort and security. Not anymore Quart, Guardian 7/16
“There are three main reasons the vaunted economic recovery still feels false to so many. The first is the labor participation rate, which plunged at the start of the Great Recession and discounts the millions of Americans who have been out of work for six months or more. The second is “the 1099 economy,” … the soaring number of temps, contractors, freelancers, and other often involuntarily self-employed workers. The third is a surge in low-wage service jobs, coupled with a corresponding decrease in middle-class jobs.” Why America’s impressive 5% unemployment rate feels like a lie for so many Kendzior, Quartz 4/16
Business Leaders Have Abandoned the Middle Class, Haque, HBR, 6/16
Producing Poverty: The Public Cost of Low-Wage Production Jobs in Manufacturing Berkeley Labor Ctr 5/16
Report of 10,000 severe workplace injuries might be only half the problem, Wash. Post, 3/16
The missing puzzle piece of the global economic recovery is finally falling into place, Bird 6/15
State, Met. Area Employment and Unemployment Data, BLS
The Missing Piece of the Global Recovery
Interactive map: Unemployment rates by state, BLS
International Labor Comparisons, BLS
At Amazon.com “cheap” comes at a very hefty price, Hightower 8/14
Report Uncovers the Real Costs of Outsourcing Public Services, JwJ 3/14
Do You Have Job Fear? What’s Why We Need Full Employment, Johnson CAF 8/13
Millions of Americans live in extreme poverty, Matthews, 5/13
Going Nowhere: Workers Wages since the Mid-1970s, TCF, 1/13
How Do States’ Safety Net Policies Affect Poverty? Wheaton et al, Urban Instit, 9/11
Who Has Benefitted from the Post-Great Recession Recovery? Sum &McLaughlin 7/11
How Government spent your income taxes, National Priorities Project
International Unemployment Rates and Employment Indexes 2008-2009, BLS
How America Can Create Jobs, Andy Grove, Intel, BW 7/10
How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America, D.Peck,, Atlantic, 3/10
Unions and Other Community Groups Benefit Local Economic Development 8/09
Welfare Aid Isn’t Growing as Economy Drops Off, NYT, 2/09
Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns, CEPR 3/09
Conference Board Employment Trends Index
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Job Quality in the United States over the Three Most Recent Business Cycles, Schmitt, CEPR, 11/07
No-Benefit Jobs Leave Parents Struggling, H. Boushey, Sojourners, S/O 07
Unemployment may depress immune function, 4/07
Data–employment, earnings, family income, hours, prices, unionization
Finding the better fit: Receiving unemployment insurance increases likelihood of re-employment with health insurance, Heather Boushey
Ownership Society–Social Security Is Only the BeginningWray, Levy Inst.
Millions of Working People Don’t Get Paid Time Off for Holidays or Vacation , EPI, 8/05
Injuries to All [workplace injuries]
Government Budget Calculator, CEPR
The Rise in Job Displacement, 1991-2004, Crisis in Manufacturing, CEPR, 8/04