Effect Of Disability Recipients On Labor Force Participation Measures
The number of people receiving Social Security disability benefits increased from 7.1 million in December 2007 to 8.7 million in April 2012, a 22% increase. Recipients are excluded from the labor force. Economists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley estimated this explained as much as 0.5 of the 2.0 percentage point decline in the U.S. labor-force participation rate during the period.
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The rise took place amid the nation’s worst inflation in 40 years.
“From gas to groceries the cost of everything is going up and it’s exciting to see more Louisianans working than ever before,” Louisiana Workforce Commission Secretary Ava Cates said, also in a statement.
The commission said the labor force participation rate, which means those between ages 16-64 who are working, is 59%.
About 29,000 jobs are available.
“Job fairs and hiring events are constantly taking place around the state and employers are eager to hire,” Cates said.
The latest rate is down 0.2 percentage points from May and 2 percentage points below June, 2021.
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President’s Council On Jobs And Competitiveness
President Obama established the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in 2009. The Council released an interim report with a series of recommendations in October 2011. The report included five major initiatives to increase employment while improving competitiveness:
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What Job Creation Rate Is Required To Lower The Unemployment Rate
Estimates
Estimates vary for the number of jobs that must be created to absorb the inflow of persons into the labor force, to maintain a given rate of unemployment. This number is significantly affected by demographics and population growth. For example, economist Laura D’Andrea Tyson estimated this figure at 125,000 jobs per month during 2011.
Economist Paul Krugman estimated it around 90,000 during 2012, mentioning also it used to be higher. One method of calculating this figure follows, using data as of September 2012: U.S. population 314,484,000 x 0.90% annual population growth x 63% of population is working age x 63% work force participation rate / 12 months per year = 93,614 jobs/month. This approximates the Krugman figure.
Federal Reserve analysts estimated this figure around 80,000 in June 2013: “According to our analysis, job growth of more than about 80,000 jobs per month would put downward pressure on the unemployment rate, down significantly from 150,000 to 200,000 during the 1980s and 1990s. We expect this trend to fall to around 35,000 jobs per month from 2016 through theremainder of the decade.”
Empirical data
During the 41 months from January 2010 to May 2013, there were 19 months where the unemployment rate declined. On average, 179,000 jobs were created in those months. The median job creation during those months was 166,000.
How Unemployment Tracks Recessions
Unemployment tracks the business cycle. Recessions are part of that cycle and can cause high unemployment. Businesses often lay off workers and, without an income, those jobless workers have less money to spend. Lower consumer spending reduces business revenue, which forces companies to cut more payroll. This downward cycle can be devastating to individuals and the economy.
The highest rate of U.S. unemployment was 24.9% in 1933, during the Great Depression. Unemployment remained above 14% from 1931 to 1940. It remained in the single digits until September 1982 when it reached 10.1%. During the Great Recession, unemployment reached 10% in October 2009. In 2020, it reached double digits again at 14.7% in April when the U.S. was dealing with a pandemic and recession.
The Federal Reserve uses expansionary monetary policy to lower interest rates. Congress uses fiscal policy to create jobs and provide extended unemployment benefits.
The unemployment rate typically falls during the expansion phase of the business cycle. The lowest unemployment rate in modern history was 1.2% in 1944.
It may seem counterintuitive to think unemployment can get too low, but it can.
The Federal Reserve does not target specific figures for the natural rate of unemployment, but simply seeks “the maximum level of employment” as part of its long-term financial policy goals.
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Edwards: La Reaches All
BATON ROUGE, La. – Gov. John Bel Edwards announced Louisiana reached the lowest unemployment rate in the states history on Wednesday, July 27.
Edwards says that with an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, more Louisianans are employed than ever before.
This is a testament to the hard bipartisan work we have done to grow, diversify, and invest in our economy, Edwards said. Even more so, it speaks to the incredible talent and strong work ethic of our people who have weathered floods, hurricanes, and a global pandemic and have come out stronger.
We know that the best tool for a family to fight the pressures of inflation is a good-paying job. This is a great time for Louisianans who are looking to start a new career or find a new opportunity with better pay. I want to encourage the people of Louisiana to reach out to the Louisiana Workforce Commission for assistance and to look at what opportunities might be available in their communities, Edwards added.
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Us Unemployment Rates By Year And State
Americas unemployment rate is a near-constant part of the countrys political and economic discourse. But as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment has an even bigger spotlight. Millions around the United States have lost their jobs due to the number of businesses that were forced to close or reduce staff in an effort to keep people safe and healthy.
As an institute of higher learning that prepares students for careers in many different fields, here at Grand Canyon University we have a vested interest in employment trends in America. Even before the Coronavirus hit and thrust unemployment to the top of the news, our team was undertaking a detailed study of how unemployment has changed across the nation over the decades. Once the pandemic took hold, we decided our research could help contextualize the current situation while also achieving the initial goal of illustrating how the economy and employment can vary from one state to the next.
With that in mind, we turned our data into a series of maps and graphics that illustrate some of the most interesting findings from our analysis.
To give additional information and context to some of Americas more recent past as it relates to unemployment, we also created this timeline focusing on the period from 1976 to the present. At various points, we have made annotations outlining world events and the impact they had on the economy and unemployment.
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Biggest Gains In Manufacturing Education And Health Services
Gov. John Bel Edwards on Wednesday hailed Louisiana’s record low unemployment rate.
Louisiana’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 3.8% is the lowest on record, officials said Wednesday.
“We know that the best tool for a family to fight the pressures of inflation is a good-paying job,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement.
“This is a great time for Louisianans who are looking to start a new career or find a new opportunity with better pay,” Edwards said.
Seasonally adjusted unemployment figures mean they are tweaked to account for issues like weather, major holidays and school schedules.
The number of those employed rose by nearly 4,000 in June, according to the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
The biggest gains were in manufacturing, education and health services.
Unemployment Rates And Economic Strength
Having a low unemployment rate does not mean a country’s economy is particularly strong. For instance, Niger had only 0.8% unemployment in 2021, but its GDP per capita was $594.9 in 2021, according to the World Bank. Burundi had 1.8% unemployment in 2021 but a GDP per capita of $236.8 in 2021.
These countries have low unemployment figures in large part because their economies rely heavily on agriculture, which is labor-intensive but seasonal. Remember that the underemployed are still counted in employment figures. Even Laos, with a relatively healthy GDP per capita of $2,551.3 in 2021, still employed 61% of its workforce in agriculture in 2019.
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A Strengthening Labor Market Brings Improvements For All Groups Though Disparities Remain
EPI analyzes state unemployment rates by race and ethnicity, and racial/ethnic unemployment rate gaps, on a quarterly basis to generate a sample size large enough to create reliable estimates of unemployment rates by race and ethnicity at the state level.
We report estimates only for states for which the sample size of these subgroups is large enough to create an accurate estimate. For this reason, the number of states included in our maps and data tables varies based on the analysis performed. The following analysis contains data on the first quarter of 2022 and the fourth quarter of 2021.
Government As The Employer Of Last Resort
The government could also become the employer of last resort, just as central banks are the lenders of last resort. A job guarantee would maintain labor market stability and could establish full employment. This would introduce a shock absorber into the labor market. Full employment might also gain wider support among the electorate than a basic income policy.
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Persons With Multiple Jobs
The BLS reported that in 2017, there were approximately 7.5 million persons age 16 and over working multiple jobs, about 4.9% of the population. This was relatively unchanged from 2016. About 4 million worked a full-time primary job and part-time secondary job. A 2020 study based on a Census Bureau survey estimated a higher share of multiple jobholders, with 7.8% of persons in the U.S. working multiple jobs as of 2018 the study found that this percentage has been trending upward during the past twenty years and that earnings from second jobs are, on average, 27.8% of a multiple jobholder’s earnings.
List Of Us States And Territories By Unemployment Rate
The list of U.S. states and territories by unemployment rate compares the seasonally adjustedunemployment rates by state and territory, sortable by name, rate, and change. Data are provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment publication.While the non-seasonally adjusted data reflects the actual unemployment rate, the seasonally adjusted data removes time from the equation.
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Statement From President Biden On Record
Americans across the country are back to work at a historic level. Right now, workers in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin are less likely to be unemployed than in any other time on record. The unemployment rate did not increase in any of our 50 states.
This news comes on the heels of new data showing that the number of Americans who are forced to rely on unemployment insurance programs for their support fell to its lowest level in over 52 years and that the economy has added more than 8 million jobs since I took office more jobs on average per month than under any other President in history.
This job creation is no accident its the direct result of my economic plan to rebuild the economy from the bottom up and the middle out through the historic American Rescue Plan and a nationwide vaccination strategy. There is more work to do to build an economy that works for all Americans. Tackling inflation is my top priority. But we cannot lose sight of the fact that millions of workers are now able to better provide for themselves and their families and enjoy the dignity that a good-paying job provides.
Unemployment Rates Under President Truman
Unemployment figures prior to January 1948 arent readily available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This chart begins January 1948, nearly 3 years into Trumans presidency.
The effects of World War II demobilization were still being felt as the economy shifted from a war footing to peacetime and then started recalibrating for the Cold War and the growth of the national security state.
Overall, unemployment rates during most of Trumans presidency were low. A notable exception was the fall of 1949 when the effects of postwar demobilization were being fully felt and the economy went into recession. Unemployment peaked at 7.9 percent in October 1949 and then fell steadily, hovering under 3 percent by the time he left office.
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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.
Companies resist hiring new workers when a recession is over, until they can be sure that the economy will stay strong. The economy could improve for months, and the recession could be over before the unemployment rate drops. It’s not suitable for predicting trends, but it’s useful for confirming them.
Job Growth Projections 20162026
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on October 24, 2017 its projections of job growth by industry and job type over the 20162026 period. Healthcare was the industry expected to add the most jobs, driven by demand from an aging population. The top three occupations were: personal care aides with 754,000 jobs added or a 37% increase home health aids with 425,600 or 47% and software developers at 253,400 or 30.5%.
BLS also reported that: “About 9 out of 10 new jobs are projected to be added in the service-providing sector from 2016 to 2026, resulting in more than 10.5 million new jobs, or 0.8 percent annual growth. The goods-producing sector is expected to increase by 219,000 jobs, growing at a rate of 0.1 percent per year over the projections decade.” BLS predicted that manufacturing jobs would decline by over 700,000 over that period.
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Us Jobless Claims Hit Lowest Level In Over 50 Years
WASHINGTON The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in 52 years as the U.S. job market continues to show strength in the midst of rising costs and an ongoing virus pandemic.
Jobless claims fell by 28,000 to 187,000 for the week ending March 19, the lowest since September of 1969, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time applications for jobless aid generally track the pace of layoffs.
The four-week average for claims, which compensates for weekly volatility, also fell to levels not seen in five decades. The Labor Department reported that the four week moving average tumbled to 211,750 from the previous weeks 223,250.
In total, 1,350,000 Americans were collecting jobless aid the week that ended March 12, another five-decade low.
Earlier this month, the government reported that employers added a robust 678,000 jobs in February, the largest monthly total since July. The unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent, from 4 percent in January, extending a sharp decline in joblessness to its lowest level since before the pandemic erupted two years ago.
U.S. businesses posted a near-record level of open jobs in January 11.3 million a trend has helped pad workers pay and added to inflationary pressures.
The central banks policymakers have projected that inflation will remain elevated, ending 2022 at 4.3 percent.
Continuing Claims In Week Ending March 19 2022 Remain At Post
Initial claims for unemployment insurance across the U.S. were 187,000 for the week ending March 19, 2022, on a seasonally adjusted basis. This was down by 28,000 from the revised figure for the prior week. The four-week moving average for initial claims was 211,750, down by 11,500 from the revised figure for the prior week.
The figure of 187,000 new weekly claims was the lowest since 182,000 was recorded on Sept. 6, 1969. It also represented the seventh week-to-week decline in the past nine weeks. Additionally, it was 11.0% below the estimate of 210,000 per economists polled by Bloomberg.
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How Is The Unemployment Rate Calculated
The unemployment rate divides the number of unemployed workers by the total available workforce. In this equation, “unemployed workers” must be age 16 or older and must have been available to work full-time in the past four weeks. They must have actively looked for work during that time frame, as well, and temporarily laid-off workers don’t count.
Minnesota Owns The Lowest Unemployment Rate Of Any State Ever
Minnesota owns the lowest unemployment rate of any state — ever
Minnesota’s 1.8% unemployment rate in June was the lowest ever recorded by a state over a half-century of recordkeeping. State officials say the low jobless rate is mostly a good thing. But it means employers and hiring agencies need to do a better job connecting with people they’ve previously overlooked, they say.
EAGAN, Minn. – Minnesota’s 1.8% unemployment rate in June was the lowest ever recorded by a state over a half-century of recordkeeping.
State officials say the low jobless rate is mostly a good thing. But it means employers and hiring agencies need to do a better job connecting with people they’ve previously overlooked, they say.
Minnesota has 2.7 open jobs for every one available worker. The state’s labor force remains smaller than before the COVID-19 pandemic, and population trends suggest that will not change quickly.
” is a good thing, but it also means theres lots of opportunities in our economy that are not being filled by workers,” said Steve Grove, the state’s economic development commissioner. “We dont have enough workers to fill the jobs that are out there today.”
Monday, state officials visited a Minnesota Valley Transit Authority garage in Eagan, where students with disabilities have been working this summer. A state program seeks to connect employers with job training agencies for workers with disabilities.
Minnesota hits record number of job vacancies
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