Emily Brun
Dr. Kassens
Econ 122
December 10, 2015
Employment
Situation Report Analysis
Based
on the data collected between November 2013 and November 2015, it has been
numerically illustrated that the unemployment rate has barely decreased. As
exemplified by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) U.S. Department of Labor, “Over
the past 12 months, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons
are down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.1 million, respectively” (2015).
However, the number of persons who are considered to be long- term unemployed,
meaning without a job for 27 weeks or longer, grew only slightly in the past
years and none at all since June 2015. It is positive to see that the long-
term unemployed population has not increased by much due to the fact that this
population already makes up 25.7 percent of those who are unemployed.
Within
these separations of unemployed persons, is the focus on major worker groups.
These groups include adult men, adult women, teenagers, whites, blacks, Asians,
and Hispanics. The main groups who seem to be affected are teenagers and
blacks. However, it is described that little to no change occurred in November.
The BLS then focuses on
the different groups that do not fall into the population of unemployed. Persons
who are considered part- time for economic reasons refers to individuals who
would rather be a full- time employee but simply are not and therefore have
reverted to working part time. These individuals are also referred to as “involuntary
part- time workers”. The information collected by BLS shows, “the number of
persons employed part time for economic reasons increased by 319,000 to 6.1
million in November, following declines in September and October” (2015).
Marginally attached to
the labor force refers to the individuals who are available and willing to work
and have searched, at one point or another, over the past year for employment.
However, these persons were not actively searching for employment in the month
preceding this survey; therefore they are “marginally attached to the labor
force”. The information collected by the BLS reflects that this population of
the labor force has decreased since the prior year.
Last of the population
not included in the overall unemployed population are the discouraged workers.
These are individuals who have decided to discontinue their search for a job
due to their belief that there are no jobs available for them to fill. The BLS
explains, “among the marginally attached, there were 594,000 discouraged
workers in November, little changed from a year earlier” (2015). Due to these
individuals not having the desire to search for a job any longer, they have
(obviously) not been actively searching in the past four weeks. With that being
said, they are not included in the percentage of unemployed persons.
In accordance to the
individuals who are participating in the labor force, the BLS clarifies the
civilian labor force participation rate and employment- population ratio have shown
only marginal changes. The employment- population ratio in particular has
remained completely unchanged since October of 2014. These statistics elucidate
the rise of nonfarm payroll employment in November of 2015 which reflects the
typical average monthly gain. These jobs include, but are not limited to,
construction, professional and technical services, health care, and food
services and drinking places, etc.
I anticipate the
unemployment rates while continue to minimally decrease. My reason for this
being, some individuals will likely get a full- time job and those who don’t
will eventually end up identifying with the group of discouraged workers. If
individuals had the ability to have a job or profession they were actually
passionate about, I believe this problem could begin working towards
resolution.
Reference
List
Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department of Labor. (2015).
The Employment Situation –
November 2015. Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Department
of Labor, USDL- 15- 2292. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
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