The December Employment Situation Report

Alana Slater

Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases an employment situation report that discusses a number of things. The report includes information on the unemployment rate, the employment population ratio, the labor force participation rate, changes in employment in different industries, as well as plenty of other information. These statistics can be used to identify trends in the economy and predict the future of employment.

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons divided by the labor force. To be concerned unemployed, someone must be 16 years of age or older, a civilian (not incarcerated), out of work for four or more weeks, and actively seeking work.  The labor force is the number of employed persons plus the number of unemployed. For the month of November 2015, the unemployment rate was 5.0%, which is the same as the previous month. Over the past year, unemployment has steadily dropped about 0.8%. The specific unemployment rates for different gender and racial groups should little or no change during the month of November. The number of long term unemployed people was also unchanged and that group accounted for about 26% of the total number of unemployed people.

The labor force participation rate is the labor force (number of employed plus number of unemployed) divided by the population. The population in question is not every citizen, but those that are at least 16 years of age and not incarcerated. For the month of November, the labor force participation rate was 62.5%, which was unchanged from the previous month. The employment population ratio is the number of employed persons divided by the population. For the month of November, the employment population ratio was 59.3%, which was also unchanged from the previous month.

            During November, there was a large increase in the number of part time employed people from the previous month. Before November there were 319,000 part time workers and by the end of the month there were 6.1 million part time employees. This is most likely due to the need for seasonal workers in most retail and department stores. There were 594,000 discouraged workers during the month of November. These are workers who have stopped looking for work because they believe there are no jobs available for them. The number of discouraged workers showed little change over the past year. In November, many job industries increased their number of employees, but two industries that saw drops in employment were the mining and information industries.

            Looking at the future, it’s safe to say that there won’t be a lot of drastic change in 2016. The unemployment rate has been very steadily dropping over the past year, so it is likely to follow that trend in the early months of the New Year. After the holiday season is over, the number of part time employees will most likely see a large reduction. Although there are many clear trends involving unemployment statistics, no one can be completely certain how the economy will change over the course of 2016

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Situation- November 2015. December 4 2015. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf