U.S. Unemployment Rate Drops To 6.1% In June

The Labor Department has released its official unemployment statistics for June of 2014. And the good news is that the unemployment rate for the nation has dropped to 6.1% (from 6.3% in May and April). This is the lowest rate in the Obama presidency, and in fact, is a lower rate that President Obama inherited from President Bush.

And it looks like this new rate does signify some real progress is being made in lowering unemployment. The 288,000 new jobs created easily surpasses the slight increase (of 81,000) in the civilian workforce ( from 155,613,000 in May to 155,694,000 in June). But while that is good, there are also some negatives attached to this lower unemployment rate.

* This official unemployment rate does not count all of the people who are unemployed. There are at least a couple of million people (and probably more) that have become frustrated and did not look for a job in the last four weeks (so they are no longer counted as unemployed -- even though they would love to have a job if they knew where to find one).

* Although the 6.1% official rate is 1.5% lower than the rate this time last year (a significant reduction), it is still twice the rate that is considered full employment. The full employment rate is about 3%, since that percentage of workers will be unemployed naturally (moving, looking for a better job, etc.). We must at least get south of 5% to have a rate to celebrate.

* Far too many of the jobs added in June are low-wage and low-benefit (or no benefit) jobs -- just like in preceding months. This means that while we are seeing a lower unemployment rate, we are also seeing an increase in the percentage of low-wage (or minimum wage) workers. This does not really help the economy, since the increase in low-wage workers just means there are more working people in poverty (who qualify for government benefits, but don't make enough to pay income taxes and add to government revenues).

I don't believe President Obama (or congressional Democrats) are to blame for this. They have tried to pass job creation programs (including one that would rebuild our transportation infrastructure) and raise the minimum wage to a livable level (at least $10.10 an hour). Those ideas would create jobs and get millions out of poverty. Unfortunately the congressional Republicans have blocked these efforts (and don't want to do anything except cut taxes for the rich and corporations -- which would not create jobs or lower the poverty level). It has become obvious that if we really want to cure the ailing economy, we will have to vote the Republicans out of power.

Here are the relevant numbers for June of 2014:

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE BY GROUP

Adult men...............5.7%
Adult women...............5.3%
Teenagers (16 to 19)...............21.0%
Whites...............5.3%
Blacks...............10.7%
Hispanic...............7.8%
Asian...............5.1%
Less than HS diploma...............9.1%
High School grad...............5.8%
Some college...............5.0%
Bachelor's degree or more...............3.3%

SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE

155,694,000

NUMBER OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYED WORKERS

9,474,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

6.1%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (not counted because they didn't look for work in the last four weeks)

2,028,000

A MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official count + marginally-attached)

11,502,000

A MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

7.4%

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

7,544,000

NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED/UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS

19,046,000

UNEMPLOYMENT/UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE

12.2%