The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason. - Thomas Paine
UPDATED February 3, 2012 The economy created a moderate number of jobs in January. both the U3 and U6 unemployment rates dropped to the lowest they have been since early 2009. Still, if the pace of job growth is maintained, unemployment rates won't return to pre-recession levels until after 2016!
The number of unemployed decreased in December the government reported today. The U-3 unemployment dropped to 8.3% in January. The U-6 unemployment rate dropped to 15.1%. The US economy added 243,000 jobs last month. Total U-3 Unemployment moved down to 12.8 million persons.
Click here for a larger graph of unemployment rates.
Long term unemployment, defined to be 27 weeks or more out of work was little changed at 5.5 million, or 42.9% of unemployed(U3) people. The median number of weeks of unemployment was steady at 21.1 weeks.
About 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in January, little different from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in January, little different from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
The U-6 unemployment rate includes the total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers. What is unemployment?NOTE: Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule. For more information, see "BLS introduces new range of alternative unemployment measures," in the October 1995 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. Updated population controls are introduced annually with the release of January data.
Workers in BMW's auto plants in Germany make twice as much as US workers in BMW plants who make $15 an hour. Oh and by the way German workers get 35 days of vacation AND decent healthcare.
The tea party want to abolish the minimum wage. Did YOU VOTE?
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