The Employment Situation – November 2015

According to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics latest report on December 4^th, 2015, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5%. From November, 2014 to November, 2015, the unemployment rate dropped from 5.8% to 5%, and the number of unemployed workers decreased from 9 million to 7.9 million, respectively. Employment population ration did not really change over 12 months which is still 59.3% on November, 2015 reported. Labor force participation rate was 62.9% on November, 2014 and slightly dropped to 62.5% after 12 months later. After analyzing the statistics of unemployment, I realized unemployed teenage and unemployed workers with less than high school rate were higher than other factors which indicate that experience and education always play the important roles in seeking chances of having jobs.

As an Asian, I probably should be proud of the lowest unemployment rate of Asian workers which is at 3.9% compared to Whites (4.3%), Black or African American (9.4%), and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity (6.4) in the report. In my opinion, culture really impacts on Asian’s thoughts. Most of Asian countries have been developing in which they try to improve their life by focusing on higher education to get jobs. This thought is passing over for years, which encourage the new generation embracing in education. Based on the source from OnlineCollege.org, its staff writers stated that Asians are completing high school in large numbers. About 86% of Asians in the U.S. 25 years and older have at least a high school diploma, and 50% of Asian-Americans have at least a bachelor's degree. This is huge compared to the 28% of the total U.S. population with a bachelor's degree. The responsibility is another factor make the Asian seek and work aggressively. They are responsible for their family’s income and for what they are doing. Therefore, they do not hesitate to get a job which can bring chances to earn money even though sometimes jobs do not match with their skills and their level of education. Having jobs is still better than nothing because without money today, they cannot go for further chances to change their situation in the future. Obviously, the government policy will help unemployment workers, but it only can help temporarily. After 27 weeks, unemployment workers have to find a job to survive. Sooner or later, they have to find a way to earn money, so they will take any chances to get a job no matter what it is.

According to the report, over the past 12 months, construction grown by 259,000 jobs, professional and technical services has added 298,000 jobs, health care employment increased by 470,000 jobs, food services and drinking places risen by 374,000 jobs, and retail trade jobs have added 156,000 jobs while employment in mining has declined by 123,000 jobs, and information decreased by 13,000 jobs.

Construction typically characterizes technical structures such as roads, bridges, tunnel, water supply, telecommunications, and can be defined as “the physical components of interrelated systems providing commodities and services essential to enable, sustain, or enhance societal living conditions which definitely is important in our life”. Looking at how important construction brings, I think construction industry will develop more, and create more jobs in this field. Another job growing trend is in health care industry. According to CNN Money, healthcare is the largest industry in the U.S, and the second largest employer with more than 11 million jobs. Virtually a new private sector jobs over the past 5 years came from healthcare, and the sector continues to grow faster than most other segments. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy needs pointed out that people will move to higher level of needs when the preceding need satisfied. When we are satisfied the physiological needs, we now care about safety need which include health and well-being. Without health, we cannot do anything even though we have a lot of money. So people nowadays are focusing on improving their quality of life by health care systems and policies, and also focus on nutrition and healthy foods. All of these supporting information brings my prediction for the growth of healthcare and food services in next years. Moreover, Lydia Dishman stated in her journal that the coming crisis in health care will bring more jobs in 2016. She reported that nearly 300,000 jobs posting in 2014, but only 97,549 positions were filled. This number is likely only to rise as recent findings from AMN Healthcare indicate that more than haft of current registered nurses are over the age of 50, and 62% are considering retiring in the next three years. These factors probably will bring the opening jobs in 2016 and later. The trends of growing jobs for next year hopefully will drop unemployment rate lower and help the U.S achieve a higher level of GDP.

References:

The Employment Situation-November 2015 (2015): n.d. 4 Dec. 2015. Web. 8 Dec. 2015.

"20 Amazing Stats about Asian-American Achievement - OnlineCollege.org." N.p., 13 Dec. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

Dishman, Lydia. "The Most In-Demand Jobs in 2016." The Future of Work. Fast Company, 03 Dec. 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.

"Why Pursue A Career in Health Management?" Cornell University (CNN Money Source), n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.