Saturday, December 6, 2014

Media Cheers 5.8% Rate and Addition of 321,000 Jobs But Unemployment is Up 115,000

Yes, this is a move in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go.  Behind the headlines are some very troubling numbers.
  • There are only 4,000 more working Americans. 
  • At the same time, there are another 115,000 in the unemployment line. 
  • That disparity is because of an expanding labor force, which grew 119,000.  
  • The participation rate measures the percentage of the adult civilian population who held a job during the month or simply sought one.  
    • It remained at 62.8%. 
    • That is a 36 year low.  
    • In California it is only 62.3%. 
  • Full-time jobs declined by 150,000, while part-time positions increased by 77,000.
  • U-6 Unemployment is at 11.4%.  This is a more realistic representation of unemployment as it also includes 
    • all the people who want a job but gave up, 
    • all the people involuntarily stuck with part-time jobs, and 
    • the people who dropped off the unemployment tally because their unemployment benefits expired. 
  • Meanwhile, many who've stopped looking for work are relying on government disability benefits.  From 2000 to 2012, the number of Americans filing disability claims soared 80% to 9 million from 5 million — a much faster rate than the previous decade. 

Sources: CNBC, CNSNews, NY TimesMish's Global Economic Trend AnalysisLA Times, and the Social Security Administration.