The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out a monthly report
that discusses America’s current employment situation. This report goes over statistics such as
number of people unemployed, unemployed-population ratio, and labor force
participation rate. Each of these help give a sense of how our economy is doing
in terms of job availability. This post will focus on the findings of the BLS’s
December report.
The unemployment rate measures the number of unemployed
people compared to the number of people in the Labor Force. The Labor Force is
made up of any individual employed or currently searching for employment. In
November the unemployment rate stayed at 5.0 percent. A few areas of employment
had large increases in employees. Construction rose by 46,000, food and
drinking services by 32,000, and retail trade by 31,000 are the leading
increases. There was a decline in mining by 11,000 and information by 12,000 as
well. These all contributed to the unemployment rate.
The labor force participation rate is the rate at which
people are employed or actively searching to employment. This rate did not
change from 62.5 percent in November. One of the things that can decrease this
percentage is that of discouraged workers. Discouraged workers are workers that
are not currently searching for employment because they believe there are no
jobs for them. This had no change in November from 594,000. These affect the
labor force participation rate because their view on the economy and jobs are
taking people out of that labor force. Also affecting this rate are the people
marginally attached to the labor force. These are people who had looked for
work within 12 months, but had not in the 4 weeks prior to the survey. This
dropped to 1.7 million people in November. These people are not counted within
the labor force.
The employment-population ratio is the number of employed
people in the labor force divided by the total population of working age. In
November this did not change from 59.3 percent. The unemployment rate of 5 percent
affects this ratio. The highest number of unemployed individuals was teenagers
from 16 to 19 years old at 15,700. This could be caused by there not being an
availability of jobs for teenagers or by their lack of experience in jobs.
Within this report, trends and interesting facts can be
found. With the winter holidays approaching, it is no surprise that part time
jobs for economic reasons increased by 319,000 in November. These are people
that would like full time jobs but were unable to find any so they are forced
to work part-time. While part time for economic reasons rose to 6.1 million –
part time for noneconomic reasons had very little change at 20.2 million. This
shows that with the increase of store hours and need for manpower to fuel the holidays
that there was an increase in part time job availability. However compared to
last year (2014), in November there were 6.9 million part time for economic
reasons employed with noneconomic reasons close to current years value at 20
million. While noneconomic jobs are staying consistent between the years,
economic reasons had a decrease. These types of trends and views on the report
from the BLS help shape our way of thinking about employment and give us
insight as to where changes are made and how it affects the labor force as a
whole.
Works Cited:
The Employment Situation-November 2015. (2015, December 4). Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved
December 7th, 2015 from, http://www.bls.gov/news.release /pdf/empsit.pdf
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