Part 2: The demographics of the unemployed for September 5th:
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:
- White: 3.9%
- Asian: 4%
- Hispanic: 5.2%
- Black: 7.7%
Here are the adjusted rates:
- White: 7.6%
- Asians: 7.8%
- Hispanic: 10.1%
- Black: 15%
Here we see a bunch of devils in the details. For the first time in the eight plus years I've tracked and examined this stuff monthly the white unemployment rate is lower than the Asian rate. I don't know that there's anything to read into it but it's notable. Otherwise this breakout shows how important it is to look beyond the base rate & also into the demographics. Most economists & analysts report the 4.4% unemployment rate and talk about how we're at full employment, etc. Try telling that to the 15% of black adults who need work. It's not acceptable to take millions of unemployed Americans for granted because of antiquated government reporting standards. In the third part of today's story we'll explore how much money we're making...