The January 2016 unemployment report is being reported as nothing but good news. The official unemployment rate is 4.9%, a rate not seen since February 2008. This is the weird month where annual population adjustments are applied and not backwards adjusted.
The December unemployment report seems like nothing but good news. The official unemployment rate did not change and is 5.0%. The ranks of employed swelled and those not in the labor force shrank. The labor participate rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to stand at a still very low 62.6%. Overall, this month's CPS report belies some of the other ominous economic news.
The November unemployment report is another OK type of report. Less people were dropped out of the labor force for the month and the labor participation rate did tick up a tenth of a percentage point from the October 1977 record low. The official unemployment rate did not change and is 5.0%. Overall, this month's report is on the positive side.
The October unemployment report is a pleasant surprise in comparison to recent months. Less people were dropped out of the labor force for the month, a welcome change. The labor participation rate though did not change from the October 1977 record lows. The official unemployment rate did tick down a tenth of a percentage point to 5.0%. Overall, this month's report is a surprise on the positive side.
The September unemployment report is really a disaster. Yet another 579,000 people dropped out of the labor force. The labor participation rate dropped to record lows not seen since October 1977. That's 38 years ago. Even more disturbing is how the unemployment rate is really undermined as a reading on the state of labor. The official unemployment rate did not change at all and remained at 5.1%.
The August unemployment report shows steady as she goes sorts of statistics. Yet, the report is really a mixed bag. The unemployment rate dropped two tenths of a percentage point to be 5.1%. The labor participation rate remained the same, 62.6%, and hasn't changed for three months. Once again over a quarter of a million people dropped out of the labor force.
The July employment report shows almost the same results as last month. The unemployment rate remained the same, 5.3%. The labor participation rate also did not change from the 62.6% low. More people dropped out of the labor force than became employed. While 144,000 dropped out of the labor force, only 101 thousand more became employed.
The June employment report brings some OMG, jaw dropping, are you kidding me numbers. Over 640,000 dropped out of the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate declined two tenths of a percentage point to 5.3%. The labor participation rate dropped by -0.3 percentage points to 62.6%. This new low of a labor participation rate has not seen since October 1977 when women and minorities were still were not in the workforce extensively.
The April unemployment rate remained the same, yet unlike the past few months, the lack of change was not due to people dropping out of the workforce. Instead the participation rate ticked up a smidgen and more people were considered employed. The official unemployment rate is 5.4%, a tenth of a percentage point lower than last month.
The March unemployment rate remained the same, yet once again the BLS survey showed another huge increase in those not considered part of the labor force anymore and as a result the figure hit a record 93.175 million high. The official unemployment rate is 5.5%. The labor participation rate is also 62.7% and remains at 37 year record lows. From a year ago, the number of people considered not in the labor force has increased by over two million.
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