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Orwellian Unemployment Figures PDF Print E-mail
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Friday, 17 May 2013 14:10
The Labor Department said Friday that non-farm employers added 165,000 jobs in April and the U-3 unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5%.

Unemployment rates have primarily declined because many of the unemployed have stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively seeking jobs. Many people have stopped actively looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for which they would be considered and so they are not counted as unemployed even though they are not working and would like to be. 2.3 million people were marginally attached to the labor force in April, meaning they wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months, but are not included in the unemployment rate. A further 7.9 million individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job, but are not included in the unemployment rate.

In total, including children and retirees, almost 90 million Americans are not included in the labor force, which puts the civilian labor force participation rate at 63.3% in April, which is the lowest it's been since the 1970s. The civilian noninstitutional population -- i.e. those capable of working -- was 245 million in April and grows at a rate of roughly 0.9% annually. That means that approximately 184,000 people should be entering the labor force on a monthly basis just from population growth alone. But 13,500 more workers became discouraged in April than were added to the labor force through population growth. In other words, while 165,000 jobs were added, 197,000 people gave up looking for jobs or never bothered to start.

New York and California -- two states being touted as having decreased their unemployment rates the most in April -- were among the states with the largest reduction in the size of their labor force, implying that their lower unemployment rates came mostly from people giving up looking for work rather than becoming newly hired. Only Texas showed both a sizable increase in their labor force and a simultaneous decrease in their unemployment rate, indicating hiring occurring. Colorado, Virginia, and Missouri to a lesser extent showed true unemployment reduction. On a national level though, about 32,000 more people in April were without a job than in March. So to claim that the unemployment rate fell "to a four-year low" borders on Orwellian doublespeak. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

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Last Updated ( Friday, 17 May 2013 14:58 )
 
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