Unemployment Rate Is 6.3% For Second Straight Month

The Labor Department released its official unemployment numbers for the month of May yesterday, and it showed that the economy is still struggling with creating jobs. The unemployment rate is 6.3% for May -- the same rate that was registered for April. That's a drop of 1.3% from May of 2013, but shows the economy is still a long way from becoming healthy (which would require a rate of under 5%).

The number of employed Americans did rise by about 145,000 in May (from 145,669.000 in April to 145,814,000 in May), but the size of the civilian workforce increased by even more (about 192,000 people). That means the number of official unemployed people rose by about 46,000. But while the number of the unemployed rose, the rise was not big enough to cause the unemployment rate to also rise.

But the official unemployment rate doesn't include all of the unemployed people in this country. It doesn't include those labeled at marginally-attached to the workforce (because they didn't look for work in the last four weeks) or others who have given up on finding work and haven't looked for it in a much longer time period. The government (under both Democratic & Republican administrations) is able to claim the unemployment rate is lower than it actually is by only counting those who are actively seeking work as being unemployed. Of course this ignores the plight of millions who would love to work, but can't find a job (and are no longer counted by the government).

Here are the relevant statistics for May 2014:

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

155,613,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

9,799,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

6.3%

MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (officially unemployed + marginally-attached):

11,929,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

7.7%

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

7,269,000

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED/UNDEREMPLOYED:

19,198,000

UNEMPLOYMENT/UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE:

12.3%