Unemployment Rate Slips to 5.3%
Thanks to the July 4th long weekend, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (US Department of Labor) published the June job numbers a day earlier than normal. The report revealed that the US economy added 223,000 jobs in June, which was about 10,000 fewer than expected (expectations had ranged from a low of 160,000 all the way up to 290,000).
The national unemployment rate, which was 5.5% last month, moved lower to 5.3%. Expectations were that the national unemployment rate would decline, but only by 0.1%.
The labor force participation rate, which measures the size of the civilian labor force (those who are employed or actively looking for work) against the size of the civilian noninstitutional population, dropped by 0.3% to 62.6%. This is a distressing number for the country, as the labor force participation rate continues to trend in the wrong direction.
The number of employed Americans declined by 56,000 to 148,739,000, while the number of unemployed Americans declined by a whopping 375,000 to 8,299,000. Good news, right? The next number that I would like to point out is the number of Americans who are "not in the labor force", which means the people who are neither working or actively looking for work. This number spiked by an incredible 640,000 to 93,626,000 in June. So, while the number of unemployed declined dramatically (which is what brought the unemployment rate down by 0.2%), the number of people who are not in the labor force increased by an even larger amount, while the number of employed Americans actually declined.
The unemployment rates for adult men and women dropped by 0.2% to 4.8%, while the unemployment rate for teenagers increased by 0.2% to 18.1%.
The number of Americans who are working "part time for noneconomic reasons" increased by 519,000 to 20,480,000 in June. "Part time for noneconomic reasons" means that these people want full time work but are settling for part time jobs instead.
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The markets look to be ticking up slightly in premarket after the jobs report was released. In reality, however, there is not much to be excited about in this report.
Source: BLS.gov
Filed under: General Knowledge
