Part 1: The real unemployment rate:
Bottom Line: On Friday, the BLS reported unemployment at 4.7%. As we know that doesn't account for the long term unemployed. So each month I bring your the real unemployment rate.
This first entry is specific to what the real unemployment rate is and how labor participation factors into this important story:
- Government reported unemployment rate: 4.7%, & down from 4.9% year over year
- Actual: 9.2% down from 10.1% year over year
So here are three relevant points:
1. When the long-term unemployed & marginally employed are factored in the real unemployment rate remains nearly double the base reported rate
2. Year over year progress has started to improve with the two best months for jobs growth that we had back to back in several years (with the real unemployment rate falling by .9% year over year)
3. 7.5 million are still unemployed. 1.8 million are long-term unemployed, 5.7 million are underemployed (part-time seeking full-time work) & 1.7 million are marginally attached to the workforce
Each of those categories improved by 100,000 in February but clearly there's a lot of work to be done to aid those 16.7 million adults who are in need of better opportunities.
In part two we'll explore the demographics of the unemployed...