The Labor Department released its unemployment statistics for the month of May -- and the results were mixed. On the good side, the economy created 280,000 new jobs. On the bad side, that didn't even cover for the new people joining the civilian workforce (397,000). That means the number of unemployed rose, and that is why the official unemployment rate rose from 5.4% in April to 5.5% in May.
This makes four months in a row that the unemployment rate has been stuck at the 5.4% to 5.5% level, and shows the economy is having trouble trying to get it lower than 5%. This is because there is not enough demand to create enough new jobs -- and too many of the jobs being created are low-wage jobs that don't provide a good living. We could fix that by restoring the government spending to non-sequester levels, and by raising the minimum wage to a livable level. President Obama and most Democrats would love to do that, but the Republicans continue to block the path to a better economy.
Here are the relevant statistics for May:
OFFICIAL DEMOGRAPHIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
Adult men...............5.0%
Adults women...............5.0%
Teenagers (16-19)...............17.9%
Whites...............4.7%
Blacks...............10.2%
Hispanics...............6.7%
Asians................4.1%
Less than HS diploma...............8.6%
HS grad...............5.8%
Some college...............4.4%
Bachelor's degree or more...............2.7%
SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORKFORCE
157,469,000
OFFICIAL COUNT OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
8,674,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
5.5%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (who didn't look for work in the last four weeks and are no longer being counted as unemployed)
1,862,000
MORE REALISTIC COUNT OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS (official count + marginally-attached)
10,536,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
6.69%
NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because they can't find full-time work)
6,652,000
NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED/UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS
17,188,000
UNEMPLOYMENT/UNDEREMPLOYMENT RATE
10.9%
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