Of course I’m talking about today’s June unemployment report, which posted the lowest net increase in jobs in nearly a year. The highlights (or low lights, depending on your viewpoint) include:
- The “official” (U3) unemployment rate for June 2011: 9.2%
- Modified June U3 unemployment using the total workforce employed in January 2009, which indicates how seriously the job market has contracted: 11.2%
- The June U6 rate (total unemployed plus “underemployed” workers): 16.2%
- Nearly half of those unemployed have been without work for 6 months or more, the highest number since 1948
- Only 18,000 new private sector jobs were created nationwide in June
- The new jobs totals for April and May were revised down by 44,000 jobs
- And this, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: “Effective with data for January 2011, the Current Population Survey (CPS) was modified to allow respondents to report longer durations of unemployment. Prior to that time, the CPS accepted unemployment durations of up to 2 years; any response of unemployment duration greater than this was entered as 2 years. Starting with data for January 2011, respondents were able to report unemployment durations of up to 5 years … There was an unprecedented rise in the number of persons with very long durations of unemployment during the recent labor market downturn.”
Unemployed for five years. Wow. Welcome to Obamanomics.
I don’t think this was the ChangeTM that America was looking for three years ago. Do you?
