Part 2: The demographics of the unemployed – July 9th
Bottom Line: The demos of the unemployed tell a much more instructive story about what's really going on in our labor market. As I do monthly, here are the government reported unemployment rates and my adjusted rate based on demographics:
Asians: 3.2% (up 1.1%)
White: 3.5% (down .1%)
Hispanic: 4.6% (down .3%)
Black: 6.5% (up .6%)
Here are the adjusted rates once you factor in the long-term unemployed, underemployed and marginally attached workers:
Asians: 6.2%
White: 6.8%
Hispanic: 9%
Black: 12.7%
A month after reaching new record lows for Asian and black unemployment rates we saw both demographics bounce a bit higher this month. As cited in the first part, of today's three-part story, over 600,000 additional people entered the workforce. It appears that Asian and black adults were mostly commonly the folks entering or re-entering the workforce. That being said, we did reach a new all-time low unemployment rate for Hispanics in June – which is without a doubt the highlight demographically.
It'd be easy to overlook news like this when just looking at basic averages and numbers for the report. Obviously, we continue to see the disconnects in the labor market based on demographics and it paints a picture of where and with whom we generally need to be focusing efforts going forward. In the third part of today's employment story we'll explore the fun stuff...how much more money we're making...