How Many Are Unemployed In The Us

Why Is There Such A Big Gap In The Data

The first thing to understand is how each figure is derived. The 10.1 million unemployed data point comes from a survey of 60,000 households the Census Bureau collects each month. All the adults in the household are asked a series of questions about whether they are employed full or part time, if they are looking for work or if they have given up and stopped looking for a job. To be considered officially unemployed, someone must have searched for a job within the past month.

In normal times, this monthly survey works pretty well, but these are not normal times. Response rates to this survey have fallen during the pandemic, and low-income families that have been hit hardest by the pandemic and job losses have been the least likely to respond, census researchers found.

Another unusual challengeof this pandemic is a lot of people arent sure if they are truly unemployed or just on an extended absence from work. The Labor Department has been open about a misclassification error in which some people who should have been marked as temporarily unemployed were instead classified as employed but absent from work for other reasons. This issue makes the unemployment figures look betterthan they are.

Jobs Created By Presidential Term

Job creation is reported monthly and receives significant media attention, as a proxy for the overall health of the economy. Comparing job creation by President involves determining which starting and ending month to use, as recent Presidents typically begin in January, the fourth month into the last fiscal year budgeted by their predecessor. Journalist Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post explained in 2020 that economists debate which month to use as the base for counting job creation, between either January of the first term or February. The Washington Post uses the February jobs level as the starting point. For example, for President Obama, the computation takes the 145.815 million jobs of February 2017 and subtracts the 133.312 million jobs of February 2009 to arrive at a 12.503 million job creation figure. Using this method, the five Presidents with the most job gains were: Bill Clinton 22.745 Ronald Reagan 16.322 Barack Obama 12.503 Lyndon B. Johnson 12.338 and Jimmy Carter 10.117. Four of the top five were Democrats.

Writing in The New York Times, Steven Rattner compared job creation in the last 35 months under President Obama with the first 35 months of President Trump . President Obama added 227,000 jobs/month on average versus 191,000 jobs/month for Trump, nearly 20% more. The unemployment rate fell by 2 percentage points under Obama versus 1.2 points under Trump.

Are There Signs Of The Job Market Getting Better

The ONS said that the latest figures show “early signs” of a recovery in the jobs market.

There was a rise in the number of vacancies, to the highest level since the pandemic began.

Some businesses, like restaurants and bars, now say they are struggling to find the workers they need to reopen.

The number of people being made redundant has also been falling, though it is still higher than it was before the pandemic began.

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Unemployment In The United States

Unemployment in the United States discusses the causes and measures of U.S. unemployment and strategies for reducing it. Job creation and unemployment are affected by factors such as economic conditions, global competition, education, automation, and demographics. These factors can affect the number of workers, the duration of unemployment, and wage levels.

How To Use The Unemployment Rate

Keep in mind that the unemployment rate is a lagging indicator. It tells you what has already happened, since employers only lay off workers after business slows down.

The unemployment rate isn’t lagging as much as usual because the pandemic is still creating sudden changes.

When a recession is over, companies resist hiring new workers until they are sure the economy will stay strong. The economy could improve for months, and the recession could be over before the unemployment rate drops. Although it’s not suitable for predicting trends, it’s useful for confirming them.

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Understanding Why Ltu Occurs

Whereas traditional jobseeker support begins and ends with strategies , the ICT begins with a sociological explanation of the structural nature of the obstacles LTU jobseekers face. To counter the tendency to internalize stigma and self-blame, sociologically-informed support avoids messages that might exaggerate the role of individual jobseeker strategies in shaping job search outcomes. For example, at various ICT support gatherings, I directly discussed the sobering research findings I described above.

This kind of sociological coaching focuses on clarifying the institutional landscape and thus the context of LTU jobseekers personal experience. To most jobseekers, hiring institutions are a black box opening up this box serves a dual purpose of de-personalizing employer rejections, thus lessening self-blame and internalized stigma, and of pointing to possible strategies. This helps people understand their labor market experiences in a less personalized way, which lessens the emotional fallout of unemployment and helps maintain resilience for continued searching.

A Third Of Americans Say They Have Used Money From A Savings Or Retirement Account To Pay Their Bills Since The Outbreak

As many Americans struggle with the effects of the coronavirus recession, a third say they have turned to savings or retirement accounts to pay their bills. Additionally, more than one-in-ten have borrowed money from friends or family , gotten food from a food bank or charitable organization , or received government assistance such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits or unemployment benefits .

Use of these additional resources since the coronavirus outbreak began is more common among Americans with lower incomes. More than four-in-ten lower-income adults say they have used money from a savings or retirement account to pay their bills during this time, and about a third or more have borrowed money from friends or family , gotten food from a food bank or charitable organization , or received government food assistance . Among middle-income adults, 33% say they have used money from a savings or retirement account to pay their bills, 11% have borrowed money from family or friends, 12% have gotten food from a food bank or charitable organization, and 7% have received government food assistance. While much smaller shares of upper-income adults say they have drawn on these resources, 15% say they used money from a savings or retirement account to pay their bills since the coronavirus began.

About a quarter of adults younger than 30 say they have received unemployment benefits since outbreak began

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You Probably Need More Friendsheres How To Make Them

A big challenge she faces is dealing with fighting off the debilitating feelings of depression, anxiety and fear of what will happen in the future. This is a common theme among the dozens of people with whom I spoke with for this piece.

Sandra Remorenkowas told by her boss via a phone call that her services were no longer required. There was no empathy or compassionjust a curt goodbye and good luck.

Remorenko was an executive assistant to the head of a high-end wealth management firm located in an exclusive suburb of Atlanta. Prior to that role, Remorenko was an executive assistant to a prominent CPA firm founder and CEO. She had also worked at a top-tier private bank.

Despite her credentials and sending out over 100 résumés and applications, cold calling companies and recruiters, she didnt get any responses. Remorenko said that she reached out to everyone she knew and even applied for entry-level positions. Her few interviews were cold and callous. One company demanded that she prepare something creative, like a video or sing a song. She was told in order to work at that hiring company, You have to be a magician. She complied with the outlandish request, but never heard back.

Remorenko is greatly concerned over her situation. Some days, she feels totally overwhelmed and finds it hard to sleep well, stating she cant turn off brain.

She notices a cognitive dissonance between what she’s been told to do and her new reality.

The Power Of Sociologically

If hiring practices and networking can do more harm than good, what might help?

To explore this question, I collaborated with a group of career coaches and counselors who agreed to provide free support to LTU jobseekers under the umbrella of a non-profit organization called the Institute for Career Transitions . The support provided by the ICT departs from traditional forms of support for unemployed workers in two important ways.

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Nearly Half Of Us Adults With Lower Incomes Have Had Trouble Paying Their Bills Since The Start Of The Coronavirus Pandemic

A quarter of U.S. adults say they have had trouble paying their bills since the coronavirus outbreak began. Smaller shares of U.S. adults say they have had problems paying their rent or mortgage or affording medical care for themselves or their families . Still fewer say they lost their health insurance .

Among adults with lower incomes, 46% say they have had trouble paying their bills, and about a third have had problems paying their rent or mortgage since February significantly higher than the share of middle- and upper-income adults who have faced these struggles. This income pattern holds when looking at the shares saying they had trouble paying for medical care or lost their health insurance.

Among other key demographic groups, women, adults under age 30, Black and Hispanic adults, and those who have not obtained a college degree are among the most likely to say they have had trouble paying bills, their rent or mortgage, or for medical care. These groups have been especially impacted by higher unemployment rates during the coronavirus recession.

Us Unemployment Claims Fall To Lowest Level Since Pandemic

Applications for jobless aid have fallen steadily since last spring as many businesses, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers.

A now hiring sign sits on a display in a clothing store. | David Zalubowski/AP Photo

10/14/2021 10:06 AM EDT

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The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic began, a sign the job market is still improving even as hiring has slowed in the past two months.

Unemployment claims dropped 36,000 to 293,000 last week, the second straight drop, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s the smallest number of people to apply for benefits since the week of March 14, 2020, when the pandemic intensified, and the first time claims have dipped below 300,000. Applications for jobless aid, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily since last spring as many businesses, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers.

The decline in layoffs comes amid an otherwise unusual job market. Hiring has slowed in the past two months, even as companies and other employers have posted a near-record number of open jobs. Businesses are struggling to find workers as about three million people who lost jobs and stopped looking for work since the pandemic have yet to resume their job searches. Economists hoped more people would find work in September as schools reopened, easing child care constraints, and enhanced unemployment aid ended nationwide.

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Employment Policies And The Minimum Wage

Advocates of raising the minimum wage assert this would provide households with more money to spend, while opponents recognize the impact this has on businesses’, especially small businesses’, ability to pay additional workers. Critics argue raising employment costs deters hiring. During 2009, the minimum wage was $7.25 per hour, or $15,000 per year, below poverty level for some families. The New York Times editorial board wrote in August 2013: “As measured by the federal minimum wage, currently $7.25 an hour, low-paid work in America is lower paid today than at any time in modern memory. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation or average wages over the past nearly 50 years, it would be about $10 an hour if it had kept pace with the growth in average labor productivity, it would be about $17 an hour.”

The Economist wrote in December 2013: “A minimum wage, providing it is not set too high, could thus boost pay with no ill effects on jobs…America’s federal minimum wage, at 38% of median income, is one of the rich world’s lowest. Some studies find no harm to employment from federal or state minimum wages, others see a small one, but none finds any serious damage.”

The U.S. minimum wage was last raised to $7.25 per hour in July 2009. As of December 2013, there were 21 states with minimum wages above the Federal minimum, with the State of Washington the highest at $9.32. Ten states index their minimum wage to inflation.

Difference Between The Unemployment And Jobs Reports

The unemployment rate and figures from the jobs report don’t always tell the same story because they are taken from two different surveys.

The unemployment rate is taken from the household survey of individuals. It describes who is employed and who isn’t based on their responses.

The number of jobs added is taken from the establishment report, more commonly called the nonfarm payroll report. This survey of businesses describes how many jobs were created or lost by industry.

Since these reports are taken from completely different sources, the number of unemployed doesn’t match the number of jobs lost. Those discrepancies are expected, and the estimates are revised each month as more data comes in.

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Another Retail Casualty: Ann Taylors Parent Company Files For Bankruptcy

The pandemic has taken a heavy toll on retailers, especially apparel sellers and other mall-based chains that might have otherwise stayed afloat, perhaps even for a short period, without turning to bankruptcy court.

The latest company to file for bankruptcy was Ascena Retail Group, which on Thursday became at least the ninth prominent retailer to file for bankruptcy since early May, following Brooks Brothers, Neiman Marcus Group and J.C. Penney, among others.

Ascena, just a few years ago was one of the countrys largest clothing retailers for women and girls, will close a select number of its Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant, LOFT and Lou & Grey stores, as well as all of its Catherines locations.

Ascena was known for decades as Dress Barn, the clothing chain founded in 1962 by Roslyn S. Jaffe, who noticed that there were few options for stylish and affordable womens work attire even as more women were entering the work force. Dress Barn went public in 1983, around the time that the power suit came into vogue, exemplifying womens desire to take on the predominantly male corporate world.

Breakdown Of Participation Rate By Race And Gender

These charts give a glimpse into those whose labor participation was most affected by the pandemic. For Black and Hispanic people, the drops in labor participation were more dramatic than that of their white counterparts with notable gaps between their rates of participation during the pandemic and their pre-pandemic norms. Each drop not only represents those without a job, but more specifically, those who have had to drop out of the labor force entirely.

Structural barriers, such as the location of jobs, alignment of the skillsets of workers to available work, lack of childcare or even discriminatory practices, have influence on who participates in the labor force.

I call it the spigot effect, said Rodgers. For certain groups, you have to take into account how much the faucet is turned on.

When workers face enough barriers to drop out of the labor force entirely, they no longer appear in the headline unemployment rate at all.

Although 4.8% may sound like a job market in healthy recovery, the truth is that the pandemic is still being felt across the labor market and it is hurting those who can least afford it.

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Unemployment Rates By Group

Unemployment is not distributed evenly across the U.S. population. Figure 2 shows unemployment rates broken down in various ways: by gender, age, and race/ethnicity.

Figure 2.Unemployment Rate by Demographic Group. Unemployment rates for men used to be lower than unemployment rates for women, but in recent decades, the two rates have been very close, often with the unemployment rate for men somewhat higher. Unemployment rates are highest for the very young and become lower with age. . Although unemployment rates for all groups tend to rise and fall together, the unemployment rate for whites has been lower than the unemployment rate for Blacks and Hispanics in recent decades. .

The unemployment rate for women had historically tended to be higher than the unemployment rate for men, perhaps reflecting the historical pattern that women were seen as secondary earners. By about 1980, however, the unemployment rate for women was essentially the same as that for men, as shown in 2. During the recession of 20082009, however, the unemployment rate climbed higher for men than for women.

Figure 3. While women had historically more affected by unemployment, there is very little gender unemployment gap today.