Unemployment Highlights: July 2009

Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the Employment Situation Summary.  There is a wealth of information provided in these reports, and it is amazing to see how these numbers fluctuate each month.  Below are some highlights from the July 2009 Employment Situation Summary.

Overall Statistics

  • Number of people in the United States who are unemployed:  14.5 million

  • Size of civilian labor force: 154.5 million

  • Overall unemployment rate:  9.4%

  • Number of jobs lost in July 2009: 247,000

Unemployment Rate By Gender and Age

  • Unemployment rate for adult men: 9.8%
  • Unemployment rate for adult women: 7.5%
  • Unemployment rate for teenagers: 23.8%

Unemployment Rate For Selected Industries

  • Construction: 18.2%
  • Professional and Business Services: 10.9%
  • Government Workers: 5.1%

Other Data Points

  • Average length of a workweek: 33.1 hours
  • Average hourly earnings: $18.56

  • Average length of unemployment: 25.1 weeks

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“The Mother of All Jobless Recoveries”

David Rosenberg, Chief Economist at Canadian investment firm Gluskin Sheff, was recently interviewed by CNBC. He makes some excellent observations about the unemployment statistics. Here are a few of the highlights:

  • The “unemployment rate” is 9.5%, but the U6 unemployment rate is 16.5%.  (U6 encompasses workers not explicitly counted in the unemployment figure, e.g. workers who have had their hours reduced.)
  • Currently, nearly 20% of personal income in the United States is attributable to government benefits.
  • 9 million jobs have been destroyed during the current recession.
  • 2.5 million people have been pushed into part-time work.

He characterizes the economic outlook as “the mother of all jobless recoveries”. Not particularly optimistic, but we should point out that Rosenberg was one of the few people with the foresight to predict the housing crisis and credit bubble.

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