The unemployment rate has skyrocketed to 14.7%. That is a 10.3 percentage point jump in a month and a record since the government has been keeping labor statistics, 1948. While the jump is directly attributable to the Coronavirus, the decline in jobs is across the board. Worse, the damage from Covad-19 is starting to be permanent. It's so bad the graphs cannot adequately display the unemployment horror due to the scale.
The March unemployment report is the first major visual onlsaught of a global pandemic consequences. From here it's only going to get worse as these results are from last month. The unemployment rate jumped from 3.5% to 4.4% over one month. That hasn't happened since 1975. Labor participation rate also plunged. If gets even worse.
The April unemployment report on the surface looks really good because the unemployment rate is the lowest it has been since May 2007. Yet the cause of the low rate for the month is a mixed bag. Labor participation rates also remain low. On the other hand, an alternative measure of the unemployment rate, U-6, is the lowest it has been since November 2007.
The March unemployment report on the surface looked bad due too less than one hundred thousand jobs gained. But that is just one number and also not part of the report which calculates the unemployment rate and other statistics. The unemployment rate actually dropped -0.2 percentage points to 4.5%. That in itself is a decade low. The better news is the monthly drop was due to less people being unemployed and almost half a million more were working.
February's unemployment report is just another no change type of thing. The unemployment rate is 4.7%, a -0.1 percentage point change from last month. Those unemployed declined slightly as did those no longer in the labor force. The labor participation rate finally hit 63.0% which is still very low The biggest movement was those employed increased by 447 thousand. Folks, there just isn't much to write home about again.
January is the month when annual adjustments are added to the unemployment report. These adjustments are just tacked onto the month of January, hence one cannot compare the past month without removing these figures. Yet, with or without the annual adjustments, this year's end result isn't much of a shift. The January unemployment rate is 4.8%. Those employed had little change as did those unemployed.
The October unemployment report showed a record low labor participation rate of 62.8%, graphed below. Many dismiss these record low labor participation rates by claiming more people are retiring and young people are just in school. Is this true or is something more sinister going on?
There were 932,000 more people considered not in the labor force for October 2013 according to the BLS employment report. The labor participation rate plummeted to a new low of 62.8%. Happy belated Halloween America for the these are some crazy unemployment statistics that are one big scary surprise. While the month to month household survey figures vary greatly as a general rule, there is no government shutdown effect to explain away the monthly cliff dive of people no longer counted as part of the labor force this month.
America's employment is the same as last month and we might look at the BLS report telling us, Doctor, the patient is still dead. Someone bring the crash cart for employment in America needs to be resuscitated. The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate declined a percentage point to 7.2%.
The IMF has released their World Economic Outlook report and projects unemployment will remain unacceptably high in advanced economies as well as the Middle East and North Africa, an area of unrest. The IMF also warns if the U.S. debt ceiling is not promptly raised, serious damage to the global economy would probably result.
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