The Unemployment Rate For May Is 13.3%

The Labor Department released its statistics for the month of May. It shows the unemployment rate remains very high at 13.3%. That's higher than at anytime during the Bush recession. It did however, drop 1.4 points below April's rate of 14.7%, but there are still at least 20,985,000 unemployed workers in the country as only 2,093,000 people were able to return to work in May.

Trump bragged about how good the numbers were. It is true that the rate is below what was expected, but nearly 21 million unemployed and a drop only to 13.3% is nothing to celebrate. His "V-shaped" rebound is not happening, and even if the Coronavirus doesn't get worse, it will be many months before the economy can recover.

They didn't give a number for new jobs created. That's likely because the small number who did go back to work were returning to jobs they had before the economic shutdown.

The relevant statistics for May are:

SIZE OF CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:

158,227,000

OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:

20,985,000

OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

13.3%

DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT:

Adult men...............11.6%
Adult women...............13.9%
Teens (16-19)...............29.9%
Whites...............12.4%
Blacks...............16.8%
Asians...............15.0%
Hispanics...............17.6%
Less than HS diploma...............19.9%
HS graduate...............15.3%
Some college...............13.3%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............7.4%

NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed, but no longer counted):

2,394,000

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

23,379,000

MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:

14.78%