Unemployment Rate Drops To Lowest Rate Since 4/2008

The Labor Department released the latest unemployment figures yesterday. It showed that 173,000 new jobs had been created. That accounted for much of the drop in the unemployment rate from 5.3% in July to 5.1% in August. That's the lowest unemployment rate since April of 2008 -- more than seven years. The rate also benefitted from a 41,000 reduction in the size of the civilian workforce.

This is a rather remarkable achievement in the face of a continuing austerity imposed on the country by the Republican Congress, and makes me wonder how much lower the rate could be if those Republicans had allowed a fairer economic policy -- a policy that invested in all Americans, rather than just the rich.

But while the new lower rate is a good thing, we must also consider what kind of jobs are being created (and lost). The economy lost 26,000 jobs in mining and manufacturing (generally good-paying jobs), while adding 42,000 jobs in social assistance and food services (generally low-paying jobs). We are still on track to have 25% of the workforce in low-paying jobs by 2020 -- and that is not a good thing.

Here are the relevant statistics for August:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

157,065,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

8,029,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

5.1%

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN):

Adult Men...............4.7%
Adult Women...............4.7%
Teenagers (16-19)...............16.9%
Whites...............4.4%
Blacks...............9.5%
Hispanics...............6.6%
Asians...............3.3%
Less Than HS Diploma...............7.7%
HS Grad...............5.5%
Some College...............4.4%
Bachelor's Degree or More...............2.5%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (no longer counted because they didn't look for work in last 4 weeks):

1,812,000

MORE REALISTIC COUNT OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

9,841,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.27%

NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because they can't find full-time work):

6,483,000

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED AND UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS:

16,324,000

UNEMPLOYMENT / UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE:

10.39%