APRIL 2012 UNEMPLOYMENT DATA*
(U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS)
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT: 8.1%
A year earlier, the number of unemployed persons was 13.8
million, and the jobless rate was 9.0 percent. [BLS]
| White |
7.4% |
| African American |
13.0% |
| Hispanic |
10.3% |
| Asian** |
5.2% |
| Persons with a disability** |
12.5% |
| Men 20 years and over |
7.5% |
| Women 20 years and over |
7.4% |
| Teens (16-19 years) |
24.9% |
| Black teens |
38.2% |
| Officially unemployed |
12.5 million |
HIDDEN UNEMPLOYMENT
| Working part-time because can’t find a full-time job: | 7.9 million |
| People who want jobs but are not looking so are not counted in official statistics (of which about 2.4 million** searched for work during the prior 12 months and were available for work during the reference week.) | 6.4 million |
|
Total: 26.8 million (16.7% of the labor force) |
|
Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
**Not seasonally adjusted.
*See Uncommon Sense #4 for an explanation of the unemployment measures.
In addition, millions more were working full-time, year-round, yet earned less than the official poverty level for a family of four. In 2010, the latest year available, that number was 16.8 million, 17.0 percent of full-time, full-year workers (estimated from Current Population Survey, Bur. of the Census, 9/2011).
In February, 2012, the latest month available, the number of job openings was 3.5 million, “little changed from January. Although the number of job openings remained below the 4.3 million openings when the recession began in December 2007, the number of job openings has increased 46 percent since the end of the recession in June 2009.” Job Openings and Labor Turnover Estimates, April 10, 2012.+
Thus there are now more than 7 job-wanters for each available job.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3252
Employment-population ratio 1/1948 to 3/2012
The Waste [of output] by Paul Krugman August 11, 2011 blog
cumulative loss because of recession: $2.8 Tr.
+ “The number of job openings in February (not seasonally adjusted) increased over the year for total nonfarm, total private, and government. Retail trade, health care and social assistance, and state and local government had increases in the number of job openings over the year. The Midwest and South regions also experienced an increase in the number of job openings over the year.”