Friday, July 06, 2012

Official Unemployment Still 8.2%, Total Unemployment (U6) Back Up To 14.9%

By Susan Duclos

According to the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Situation Summary, the official unemployment rate is 8.2 percent, having rose last month to that number, while the U6, which is the total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, has risen again to 14.9 percent.

The breakdown:

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for blacks (14.4 percent) edged up over the month, while the rates for adult men (7.8 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (23.7 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and Hispanics (11.0 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.3 percent in June (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

In June, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged at 5.4 million. These individuals accounted for 41.9 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)

Job growth was 80,000, disappointing analytical expectations which were 100K and as Morrissey over at Hot Air puts it "The average monthly job growth has been 75,000 over the last three months — when we need 125K-150K to keep up with population growth. It’s a measure that shows us going backwards … again."

Once again, as is usual in our unemployment pieces we list areas still at or above the official national average for unemployment:

Arizona- 8.2%
California- 10.8%
D.C.- 9.3%
Florida- 8.6%
Georgia- 8.9%
Illinois- 8.6%
Kentucky- 8.2%
Michigan- 8.5%
Mississippi- 8.7%
Nevada- 11.6%
New Jersey- 9.2%
New York - 8.6%
North Carolina- 9.4%
Oregon- 8.4%
Rhode Island- 11.0%
South Carolina- 9.1%
Washington- 8.3%

Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)

This follows up the news from earlier in the week which showed that, in June,  U.S. manufacturing shrank for the first time in three years.