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U.S. Employment Picture at a Glance
CORRECTED 3/4/2011: This illustration has been updated to display the correct number of employed Americans who work part-time (shown in light green).
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported today that the U.S. unemployment rate fell to 9 percent in January 2011. While nearly 14 million Americans were counted as out of work, there are another 2.8 million identified as discouraged unemployed workers or those who have stopped looking for a job in the past 4 weeks.
This illustration breaks down the total civilian non-institutional population (described as eligible workers that aren't in the military or in prison/institutions) -- of which there are 238.7 million in the U.S. -- by those who are employed, unemployed, or not counted in the active labor force (like students, stay-at-home parents, and the retired).
Here are the January 2011 job numbers as reported by the BLS:
238.7 million - Civilian Noninstitutional Population
153.2 million - Active Labor Force
139.3 million - Employed (full- or part-time)
13.8 million - Unemployed
85.5 million - Not Active in Labor Force (2.8 million of which are discouraged job seekers who have given up looking for work.)
Infographic: Matt Berger (click to see it full-size)
In 1930, The gov't measured unemployment by who didn't have a job. Today, they measure it by who is collecting unemployment benefits. One they run out, you are no longer considered or counted as "unemployed."
There is no such thing as a jobless recovery. It's Orwellian double speak.
Thanks all.
L
Lance you are absolutely right on the money!
A so called jobless recovery is just another illusion.
Also I have heard that only 45% of the people that are employed full time enjoy their jobs. That leaves 55% that doesn't, They feel that they are stuck there because of the lousy job market and health-care benefits.
The true job creator is consumer demand, and when consumers have stable incomes demand expands.
It's as simple as that.
The greater than expected drop in the unemployment rate the last two months is another Census blip. 2010 Census workers are now being denied extensions of their unemployment claims because they were employed less than one year. Census workers being dropped from the unemployment rolls is causing the unemployment rate to drop. The thing is, most all are still unemployed after receiving only 3-4 months of unemployment benefits and now are being denied extensions and dropped off the rolls.
It would make no sense to measure the umemployment rate by how many people don't have a job including those that are not in the workforce. Then you would be counting college students, stay at home parents, retired people, etc. that would drastically overstate the number. The true number is higher than stated because of part-time employees that want full-time jobs and people who have just gotten sick of looking for a job where there isn't any.
The real question is what are the unemployed doing for a living. We can't assume that all of a sudden this many people just started starving.
Where is the call for small businesses to start up?
Why the big push for jobs? Who would want to work for a company when you can look at recent history and see how little that really means in security? Why isn't there a push for financial education and small business training for people who are unemployed? Working as an asst. mgr at mickey d's can't be considered a stable career. Where is the help people need to really start this economy? Time after time in American history, our economy has been pulled out of despair by small entrepreneurs working just to feed their own families. Corporate America is not going to solve this problem. Main Street America is.
