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What Is The Unemployment Percentage In The United States

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Persons With Multiple Jobs

Unemployment remains above 10 percent in the United States

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.

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.

Why Being Unemployed Is Bad

Indeed, many studies suggest that people who have been unemployed suffer more than their share of heart disease and strokes. And in a landmark study published in the 1970s, researchers estimated that every 1 percent rise in unemployment rates in the United States leads to 6,000 extra deaths every year.

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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.

Annual Unemployment Rates By State

United States Unemployment Rate
Local Area Unemployment Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Units: Unemployed percentage of the labor force
Additional data:
;
4.1

Notes

  • Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, are currently available for work, and have actively looked for work in the prior four weeks, or if they are waiting to be recalled to a job;from which they have been laid off.
  • The labor force includes the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years old and older.
  • Unemployment is measured;on a;place of residence basis.
  • Historical data are subject to revision by BLS.

Iowa Community Indicators Program, 175 Heady Hall Phone: 294-2954

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Currency And Central Bank

The United States dollar is the unit of currency of the United States. The U.S. dollar is the currency most used in international transactions. Several countries use it as their official currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency.

The federal government attempts to use both monetary policy and fiscal policy to maintain low inflation, high economic growth, and low unemployment. A private central bank, known as the Federal Reserve, was formed in 1913 to provide a stable currency and monetary policy. The U.S. dollar has been regarded as one of the more stable currencies in the world and many nations back their own currency with U.S. dollar reserves.

The U.S. dollar has maintained its position as the world’s primary reserve currency, although it is gradually being challenged in that role. Almost two thirds of currency reserves held around the world are held in U.S. dollars, compared to around 25% for the next most popular currency, the euro. Rising U.S. national debt and quantitative easing has caused some to predict that the U.S. dollar will lose its status as the world’s reserve currency; however, these predictions have not come to fruition.

In 2019, the United States was ranked 23rd on the Transparency InternationalCorruption Perceptions Index with a score of 69 out of 100.This is a decrease from its score in 2018 which was 71 out of 100.

What’s The Difference Between U

U-3 defines unemployed people as those who are willing and available to work, and who have actively sought work within the past four weeks. Those with temporary, part-time, or full-time jobs are considered employed, as are those who perform at least 15 hours of unpaid family work. U-6 adds on to U-3 the people who are marginally attached to the labor force, which includes discouraged workers, plus those who are employed part-time for economic reasons.

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Alternative Measures Of Unemployment

In response to concerns that the official rate does not fully convey the health of the labor market, the BLS publishes five alternative measures: U-1, U-2, U-4, U-5, and U-6. Though these are often referred to as unemployment rates , U-3 is technically the only unemployment rate. The others are measures of “labor underutilization.”;

Young People And Women Most Affected

Unemployment rate in the United States reaches highest level since Great Depression

Those bearing the brunt of these latest lockdowns are same groups most adversely affected by the initial impact of COVID-19 in 2020.

Youth make up just 15% of the population but accounted for half of the decrease in employment in August. Its likely this disproportionate impact is again due to younger people being more likely to work in the industries most affected by lockdowns such as accommodation and food services.

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The story from 2020 is also repeating in the labour market impact of lockdowns by gender. From May to August, female employment fell by 90,000, compared with 25,000 for males. Women also withdraw from the labour force in much larger numbers than males, 119,000 to 80,000.

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Are Furloughed Workers Considered Unemployed

? Understanding a furlough Generally, they cannot work for the employer and will not receive pay, but they are not considered unemployed. Some furloughed employees may still receive benefits, such as health insurance, and some may also be able to receive unemployment benefits, but this varies from state to state.

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.

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United States Of America

United States of America unemployment rate was at level of 8.1 % in 2020, up from 3.7 % previous year.

Unemployment rate can be defined by either the national definition, the ILO harmonized definition, or the OECD harmonized definition. The OECD harmonized unemployment rate gives the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the labor force . As defined by the International Labour Organization, “unemployed workers” are those who are currently not working but are willing and able to work for pay, currently available to work, and have actively searched for work.

Coronavirus Data and Insights

Live data and insights on Coronavirus outbreak around the world, including detailed statistics for the US, Italy, EU, and China. Confirmed and recovered cases, deaths, alternative data on economic activities, customer behavior, supply chains, and more.

What is United States of America unemployment rate?

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How Is The Us Unemployment Rate Calculated

United States Unemployment Rate

verifiedBrian Duignan

In general, the;unemployment rate;in the United States is obtained by dividing the number of unemployed persons by the number of persons in the labor force and multiplying that figure by 100. There are, however, various ways of defining unemployed, each yielding a distinct unemployment rate. The standard unemployment rate, referred to as U-3, is the one most often cited. By that measure, a person is counted as unemployed if he or she does not have a full-time, part-time, or temporary job, is actively looking for a job, and is currently available to be hired. The category of unemployed persons also includes those who have been temporarily laid off. A person is understood to be actively looking for a job if he or she has tried to obtain one within the preceding four weeks. Persons who are only marginally attached to the labor marketthose who want and are available for a job and have actively looked for a job within the preceding 12 months but not within the preceding four weeksare considered neither employed nor unemployed and thus not part of the labor force. Also excluded are discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who are not looking for a job specifically because they believe there are none for which they are qualified or because they have been victims of employment discrimination.

Find out more about the U.S. unemployment rate at:

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Composition Of Economic Sectors

The United States is the world’s second-largest manufacturer, with a 2013 industrial output of US$2.4;trillion. Its manufacturing output is greater than of Germany, France, India, and Brazil combined.Its main industries include petroleum, steel, automobiles, construction machinery, aerospace, agricultural machinery, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, and mining.

The U.S. leads the world in airplane manufacturing, which represents a large portion of U.S. industrial output. American companies such as Boeing, Cessna , Lockheed Martin , and General Dynamics produce a majority of the world’s civilian and military aircraft in factories across the United States.

The manufacturing sector of the U.S. economy has experienced substantial job losses over the past several years. In January 2004, the number of such jobs stood at 14.3 million, down by 3.0 million jobs since July 2000 and about 5.2 million since the historical peak in 1979. Employment in manufacturing was its lowest since July 1950. The number of steel workers fell from 500,000 in 1980 to 224,000 in 2000.

Products include wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton; beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, forest products, and fish.

Why Does The Unemployment Rate Tends To Underestimate The Level Of Labor Market Problems

The unemployment rate may underestimate the true extent of unemployment if: -many part-time employees would like to work full-time, but are unable to get the additional work. People looking for full-time work who grudgingly settle for a part-time job are counted as employed, even though they are only partly employed.

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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.

Research Spending By Multinational Corporations

US unemployment rate hits 14.7 percent, highest since Great Depression

The federal government and most of the 50 states that make up the United States offer tax credits to particular industries and companies to encourage them to engage in research and development . Congress usually renews a tax credit every few years. According to a survey by The Wall Street Journal in 2012, companies do not factor in these credits when making decisions about investing in R&D, since they cannot rely on these credits being renewed.

In 2014, four U.S. multinational corporations figured in the Top 50 for the volume of expenditure on R&D: Microsoft, Intel, Johnson & Johnson and Google. Several have figured in the Top 20 for at least ten years: Intel, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and IBM. Google was included in this table for the first time in 2013.

Global top 50 companies by R&D volume and intensity, 2014* R&D intensity is defined as R&D expenditure divided by net sales.** Although incorporated in the Netherlands, Airbus’s principal manufacturing facilities are located in France, Germany, Spain and the UK.Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 , Table 9.3, based on Hernández et. al EU R&D Scoreboard: the 2014 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. European Commission: Brussels, Table 2.2.

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Comparison Of Employment Recovery Across Recessions And Financial Crises

One method of analyzing the impact of recessions on employment is to measure the period of time it takes to return to the pre-recession employment peak. By this measure, the 20082009 recession was considerably worse than the five other U.S. recessions from 1970 to present. By May 2013, U.S. employment had reached 98% of its pre-recession peak after approximately 60 months. Employment recovery following a combined recession and financial crisis tends to be much longer than a typical recession. For example, it took Norway 8.5 years to return to its pre-recession peak employment after its 1987 financial crisis and it took Sweden 17.8 years after its 1991 financial crisis. The U.S. is recovering considerably faster than either of these countries.

Solutions For Creating More Us Jobs

A variety of options for creating jobs exist, but these are strongly debated and often have tradeoffs in terms of additional government debt, adverse environmental impact, and impact on corporate profitability. Examples include infrastructure investment, tax reform, healthcare cost reduction, energy policy and carbon price certainty, reducing the cost to hire employees, education and training, deregulation, and trade policy. Authors Bittle & Johnson of Public agenda explained the pros and cons of 14 job creation arguments frequently discussed, several of which are summarized below by topic. These are hotly debated by experts from across the political spectrum.

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How Unemployment Tracks Recessions

Unemployment tracks the business cycle. Recessions cause high unemployment. Businesses lay off workers and jobless workers have less to spend as a result. Lower consumer spending reduces business revenue, which forces companies to cut more payroll. This downward cycle is devastating.

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.

The government steps in when unemployment exceeds 6%. 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 falls during the expansion phase of the business cycle. The lowest unemployment rate was 1.2% in 1944.

It may seem counterintuitive to think unemployment can get too low, but it can.

The Federal Reserve says that the natural rate of unemployment falls between 3.5% and 4.5%. If the rate falls any lower than that, the economy could experience too much inflation, and companies could struggle to find good workers that allow them to expand operations.

If youre looking for work after a recession, youll find the going is still tough. It might take several months before the unemployment rate falls.

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