Digging out the important numbers in the employment report

[jpljr77]

The Labor Department lays all of these numbers out for everyone to see each month. Sure, they're not in bullet form at the top of the release, but they are there...you just need to dig.

The Employment Situation in the U.S. in September:

• Total officially unemployed people: 15.1 million
  
• Workers that have been out of a job longer than six months: 5.4 million, a record high
  
• Labor participation rate (% of Americans who are actually in labor pool): 65.2%, lowest in 23 years
  
• U-6 measure (or "real" unemployment rate, includes discouraged and forced part-time workers): 17%
  
• Average work week in U.S.: 33 hours, all-time low
  
• Total net jobs reported lost since December 2007: 7.2 million
  
• Number of consecutive months with net reported job losses: 21
  
• Net job differential in July and August after revisions: -13,000
  

Demographics:

Unemployment rate (the "headline" number, not "real" number) for:

• Men: 10.3%
  
• Women: 7.8%
  
• Teens: 25.9%
  
• Whites: 9%
  
• Blacks: 15.4%
  
• Hispanic: 12.7%
  

But the most important number, in my opinion, and the main reason healthcare reform is stalling right now: the healthcare sector ADDED 19,000 jobs in September. Since Dec 2007, there have been 559,000 healthcare jobs added.

[panader0]

1. 29 plus percent of constrution workers have lost their jobs here

in Arizona since this shit started. I get to work about one week a month, small jobs here and there. As the owner of a small business, I cannot get unemployment. It's been pretty bleak, but I have noticed a slight uptick lately.

[jpljr77]

6. Here is the construction paragraph from Labor's report:

In September, construction employment declined by 64,000. Monthly job losses averaged 66,000 from May through September, compared with an average of 117,000 per month from November to April. September job cuts were concentrated in the industry's nonresidential components (-39,000) and in heavy construction (-12,000). Since December 2007, employment in construction has fallen by 1.5 million.

Manufacturing has had it even worse: 2.1 million jobs lost in that sector since Dec. 2007.

[Subdivisions]

2. Thanks for the breakdown, jp. Those are some really dismal numbers. And,

it's not likely to get any better anytime soon, despite VP Biden's confidence that it will.

[jpljr77]

4. Well, there might be something to the optimism.

Even though September's headline numbers were worse than economists' expectations, they weren't off by much. But the report is universally dismal. I mean, everything was bad (wages, by the way, grew one cent, or 0.1% in Sept).

Things were so bad, it almost reads as a capitulation report. Employers finally just "gave up" and made cuts they had been waiting to make. In other words, it feels like a report that has the air of true bottom.

Of course, with that said, we'll probably lose another 200,000+ jobs in Oct.

[RKP5637]

3. Good Info.! Thanks!!! n/t

[AllentownJake]

5. Nothing to see here

The recovery is on the horizon. Green shoots and Green jobs will save us.

[kentuck]

7. High school graduates...

unable to find work?