The unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 14.7%. That is a 10.3 percentage point jump in a month and a record since the government has been keeping labor statistics, 1948. While the jump is directly attributable to the Coronavirus, the decline in jobs is across the board. Worse, the damage from Covad-19 is starting to be permanent. It's so bad the graphs cannot adequately display the unemployment horror due to the scale.
The March unemployment report is the first major visual onlsaught of a global pandemic consequences. From here it's only going to get worse as these results are from last month. The unemployment rate jumped from 3.5% to 4.4% over one month. That hasn't happened since 1975. Labor participation rate also plunged. If gets even worse.
The April unemployment report on the surface looks really good because the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since May 2007. Yet the cause of the low rate for the month is a mixed bag. Labor participation rates also remain low. On the other hand, an alternative measure of the unemployment rate, U-6, is the lowest it has been since November 2007.
The March unemployment report on the surface looked bad due too less than one hundred thousand jobs gained. But that is just one number and also not part of the report which calculates the unemployment rate and other statistics. The unemployment rate actually dropped -0.2 percentage points to 4.5%. That in itself is a decade low. The better news is the monthly drop was due to less people being unemployed and almost half a million more were working.
The October unemployment report showed a record low labor participation rate of 62.8%, graphed below. Many dismiss these record low labor participation rates by claiming more people are retiring and young people are just in school. Is this true or is something more sinister going on?
There were 932,000 more people considered not in the labor force for October 2013 according to the BLS employment report. The labor participation rate plummeted to a new low of 62.8%. Happy belated Halloween America for the these are some crazy unemployment statistics that are one big scary surprise. While the month to month household survey figures vary greatly as a general rule, there is no government shutdown effect to explain away the monthly cliff dive of people no longer counted as part of the labor force this month.
America's employment is the same as last month and we might look at the BLS report telling us, Doctor, the patient is still dead. Someone bring the crash cart for employment in America needs to be resuscitated. The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate declined a percentage point to 7.2%.
The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate declined a percentage point to 7.3% as over half a million people dropped out of the labor force. The labor participation rate just hit a low not seen since August 1978. Less people were employed as well. People dropping out of the labor force is no way to lower an unemployment rate, yet this is what is going on, five years eight months after the start of the Great Recession.
The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate declined two percentage points to 7.4%, mainly on a lower labor participation rate and more people being considered not part of the labor force. This is the lowest official unemployment rate since December 2008 and at least a percentage point of the unemployment rate drop is due to the decline in labor force participation. More people were employed as well. People stuck in part-time jobs maintained their increases from last month.
The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate remained a static 7.6% and the current population survey unemployment figures are an unmoving pool of little changed this month. More people were employed, yet the number of people stuck in part-time jobs ballooned from last month and the number of unemployed also increased slightly.
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