U.S. unemployment November 2009: DOWN to 10.0%
We still have double-digit unemployment, but DOWN is the right direction.
The Employment Situation Summary of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that was released this morning stated that the unemployment rate in November 2009 edged downward to 10.0% from 10.2% in October, and nonfarm payroll employment was virtually unchanged (-11,000). In the preceeding three months, payroll employment had declined by an average of 135,000/month! In November, job losses in the construction, manufacturing, and information industries were offset by job gains in temporary help services and health care. Since the recessing began in December 2007, payroll employment has declined by 7.2 million.
From the report:
“Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates for adult men (10.5 percent), adult women (7.9 percent), teenagers (26.7 percent), whites (9.3 percent), blacks (15.6 percent), and Hispanics (12.7 percent) showed little change in November. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted.”
“Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs fell by 463,000 in November. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) rose by 293,000 to 5.9 million. The percentage of unemployed persons jobless for 27 weeks or more increased by 2.7 percentage points to 38.3 percent.”
The number of people who worked part-time for economic reasons (sometimes called “involuntary part-time workers”) was virtually unchanged in November at 9.2 million people. These people worked part-time because their hours had been reduced or because they were unable to find a full-time job. The number of people who were “marginally attached to the workforce numbered 2.3 million in November, up by 376,000 from a year ago (not seasonally adjusted). These people wanted work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months, but not in the four weeks that preceeded the survey. This number included 861,000 discouraged workers (up from 608,000 a year ago), who believe that no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5 million had not searched for work in the four weeks before the survey for reasons like school attendance and family responsibilities.
Construction employment fell by 27,000 over the month. The rate of job loss is declining and had averaged 117,000/month in the six months before April 2009 and 63,000/month from May through October. Job losses in November were concentrated (-29,000) in nonresidential specialty trade contractors.
Employment in manufacturing dropped by 41,000 during November. The average monthly decrease for the past five months (-46,000/month) was much lower than the average for the first half of the year (-171,000/month).
Employment in the information industry fell by 17,000 in November, of which about half (-9000) were in the telecommunications component.
Employment was little changed in wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality during November.
According to the report:
“In November, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.2 hour to 33.2 hours. The manufacturing workweek increased by 0.3 hour to 40.4 hours. Factory overtime rose by 0.1 hour to 3.4 hours. Since May, the manufacturing workweek has increased by 1.0 hour.”
The report also provides revisions (fewer job losses) of the September and October changes for total nonfarm payroll employment, and a wealth of tabular data.
-Bill at Cheshire Cat Photo™
“Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”
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