Job-Related News

Cross-posted from the National Jobs for All Coalition

Unemployment data--June 2009 Times graphic-comparative job loss 3/09

Analysis:

"Unemployment in this downturn continues to be overwhelmingly a male story. The unemployment rate for men rose to 10.0 percent, just 0.1 percentage points below its all-time high in December of 1982, the highest on record since World War II.....All the other data in the household survey was consistent with further weakening of the labor market. The average and median duration of unemployment spells both rose sharply, increasing by 2.0 and 3.0 weeks, respectively. The percentage of the unemployed who have been out of work for more than 26 weeks increased by 2 percentage points to 29.0 percent. Many of these workers will soon be exhausting even their extended unemployment benefits." Baker, CEPR, 7/2/09
"...the entire growth in jobs over the last nine years has now been wiped out — the economy currently has fewer jobs than it had in May 2000 (when there were 131.9 million jobs). And importantly, this decline was not occurring because the jobs weren’t needed — the labor force has expanded by 12.5 million workers since then, as the population continued to grow. This is the only recession1 since the Great Depression to wipe out all jobs growth from the previous business cycle, a testament both to the enormity of the current crisis and to the extreme weakness of jobs growth over the business cycle from 2000 to 2007." Jobs Picture, Shierholz, EPI, 7/2/09

"The underlying news in today’s report, however, is that unemployment remained little changed because so many workers exited the labor force. In June, 358,000 workers reported exiting the labor force, nearly as many as the 374,000 who reported losing a job. This is an indication of the frustration that many are experiencing in trying to find employment—they are simply giving up. The number of discouraged workers has more than doubled to 793,000 since the recession began in December 2007." CAP Boushey, 7/2/09

Posted by Chuck Bell at 3:52 PM