The Labor Department has released its labor statistics for the month of June. It shows that 223,000 jobs were created in June, and the unemployment rate fell by 0.2% -- to 5.3%. The number of unemployed workers dropped by 375,000, but that was due mainly to people leaving the workforce, as the civilian workforce decreased by 432,000. In other words, most of the drop in the unemployment rate is due to people leaving the workforce than finding a job.
Here are the relevant statistics for June:
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP
Adult men...............4.8%
Adult women...............4.8%
Teenagers (16-19)...............18.1%
Whites...............4.6%
Blacks...............9.5%
Hispanics...............6.6%
Asians...............3.8%
SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORKFORCE
157,037,000
OFFICIAL COUNT OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
8,299,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
5.3%
NUMBER OF WORKERS MARGINALLY-ATTACHED TO WORKFORCE (and no longer counted since they didn't look for work in the last 4 weeks)
1,914,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
10,213,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBER
6.5%
NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because they can't find full-time work)
6,505,000
NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED / UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
16,718,000
UNDEREMPLOYMENT / UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
10.65%
The frightening statistic continues to be the prime age employment to population ratio, because it has only barely inched back toward its pre-crisis level. And it makes me think that maybe all the years of gutting worker rights and unions has pushed us into a new meta-state where fewer people are going to be employed. I don't think it's stable in the long-term. And I would think that the rich would be most concerned of all. But they continue to be as silly and shortsighted as ever.
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