July 3, 2025
Unemployment data–June 2025 Charts Related to BLS Employment Release Top ten charts 0f 2024 AEA STATE of WORKING AMERICA Data Library, EPI
Baker, CEPR 7/3/2025 “…there were some less encouraging signs in the report: More than half the job growth came from the state and local government sectors, and wage growth slowed sharply. Also, aggregate hours fell by 0.3 percent in the month. The drop in the unemployment rate was encouraging…..The unemployment rate for Black workers jumped 0.8 percentage points to 6.8 percent, the highest rate since January 2022. This is two full percentage points above the all-time low hit in April of 2023. The EPOP for Black workers also fell 0.6 pp to 57.7 percent, also the lowest since January 2022…..While the topline numbers in the report are positive, there are several items that provide serious grounds for concern about the future course of the labor market. The most important is the evidence for slowing wage growth. It seems clear that the pace of wage growth has slowed from where it was in 2023-2024. This will translate into slower real wage growth, especially if tariffs increase the rate of inflation. The other big warning sign is the drop in the length of the average workweek. This likely reflects a weakening in the demand for labor..”
EPI jobs blog, 6/6/25: “Given recent economic uncertainty private-sector gains were notably weaker in June, up just 74k. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% with another drop in the labor force. The only real boost was in state+local educ—maybe a seasonal quirk. More losses in manufacturing and federal jobs…..the increase in Black unemployment [notably volatile measure] to 6.8% is hard to ignore, given it hasn’t been that high since January 2022. A key indicator to watch in coming reports.” Elise Gould@elisegould.bsky.social
Ngo, Casselman DePillis NY Times, 7/3/25 “Job growth last month was driven by state and local government employment. Private education and health also contributed. But the manufacturing sector shed jobs in June….Private-sector hiring slowed, especially outside of health care. The labor force shrank. The number of people who have been out of work for more than six months rose. But the big picture remains one of surprising resilience — strong job growth, low unemployment and little sign that tariffs and uncertainty have so far derailed the labor market…..Although the overall unemployment rate remained steady, the rate for Black or African American workers jumped to 6.8 percent, from 6 percent. That number can be noisy, but wider increases in joblessness can start among populations that are historically marginalized in the labor market…..The unemployment rate ticked down in June, but the labor force also shrank by 130,000.”
Bartash, Marketwatch, 7/3/25 “The economy created a seemingly healthy 147,000 new jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to a four-month low. Great news, right? Not if you look under the hood. A close look at the June employment report suggests the labor market actually deteriorated last month. Fewer companies were hiring and more people stopped looking for work because jobs were harder to find…..Of the 147,000 new jobs created, half were in state and local government. The private sector added the fewest new workers in eight months. Not good…..Even worse, almost all the new jobs[in the private sector] were created in just one part of the economy: healthcare. Hardly any other industry was hiring. What about the decline in the unemployment rate? It fell a tick to 4.1%. The real reason was that some 329,000 people dropped out of the labor force, with many of them saying they were too discouraged by how hard it was to find a job.”
ZeroHedge, 7/3/25 “…the unemployment rate which dropped from 4.2% to 4.1%, denying expectations of an increase to 4.3%, and far below the Fed’s recently upward revised estimate of a 4.5%. ….The drop in the unemp rate was the result of a 93K increase in employed workers, offset by a decline in the civilian labor force to 173,380K from 170,510K and a drop in the number of unemployed workers from 7,237K to 7,1025K.,,,, Full-time workers rose by 282K, while part-time workers tumbled by 367K…..perhaps most important, the number of native-born workers surged by 830K to a record 132.653 million, while foreign-born workers tumbled by 348K to 31.231 million, the lowest this year.”
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
The effects of AI on firms and workers, Babina & Fedyk, Brookings, 7/25
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
Reforming unemployment insurance, EPI 6/21
Identifying the policy levers generating wage suppression and wage inequality, Mishel & Bivens, EPI 5/21
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
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,
Mystery of the Underpaid American Worker, Lindorff, Counterpunch 8/18
“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
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
Employment Hysteresis from the Great Recession, Yagan NBER 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
‘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
Economic Realities in America: By The Numbers, Pearle ABC News 1/17
American Marriage in the Time of the Recession, Campbell, Atlantic 11/16
Happy Labor Day! There Has Never Been a Middle Class Without Strong Unions, Schwarz, Intercept 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
How Government spent your income taxes, National Priorities Project
How America Can Create Jobs, Andy Grove, Intel, BW 7/10
Unions and Other Community Groups Benefit Local Economic Development 8/09
Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns, CEPR 3/09
Conference Board Employment Trends Index
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.
Injuries to All [workplace injuries]