Data shows the headline unemployment rate continued to climb and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month
The US labor market grew by more than expected last month, recovering some of the damage inflicted by the federal government shutdown, according to official data.
An estimated 105,000 jobs were lost in October, and 64,000 were added in November, a highly-anticipated report showed on Tuesday.
Jobs growth was higher in November than anticipated by many economists, with a consensus forecast of some 40,000 jobs added. But the headline unemployment rate continued to climb – and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month.
The latest jobs numbers, typically released monthly, were delayed due to the government shutdown. They land amid significant uncertainty surrounding the strength of the US economy.
It’s very complicated to define and measure something as nebulous, nuanced, and politically charged as unemployment in a precise, meaningful, objective, and cost-effective way (amongst other vital characteristics).
In the USA, we’re measuring and defining unemployment with methodologies that are essentially the lowest common denominator. That these numbers also obscure and obfuscate the reality of the situation is part of the design. To further complicate the issue, a lot of policies are being made essentially to game those simplified metrics – perverse incentives.
These numbers may very well be extremely precise and highly accurate and still it doesn’t mean that they are reflective of what Americans are experiencing as a whole or on an individual basis. And yet, policy makers are (or appear to be) focusing on these singularly to make them look better and keep up appearances.
My situation and experience are completely anecdotal, of course, but from my vantage point, it looks like there’s an uncontrolled downward economic spiral being swept under the rug. Folks who can work and want to work (or at least wouldn’t mind it) are sitting outside the system, idle. Employers are reducing their workforce and then placing added burden on those that remain to make up the difference. Those folks are burning out, taking leave, quitting, retiring early, etc. Employers aren’t replacing them, just slathering the work onto fewer and fewer plates. So, if the government isn’t doing anything meaningful about it (and in fact making it worse) and employers aren’t doing anything meaningful about it (besides taking advantage), it’ll be interesting to see how this is resolved. “It’ll work itself out in a few years” is not a reasonable stance, whether it’s true or not.
Unemployment numbers that aren’t as bad as everyone expected are missing the point, and certainly not a cause to rally and celebrate, in my opinion.
There are many different accepted methodologies for measuring unemployment. For some reason the media only focuses on the U-3 value, and I agree that is highly misleading.
It sounds like the relevant statistic you are looking for is the U-6 value. U-6 is currently measured at a relative high of 8.7%. That is 30 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed.
You can find all the data at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
Yeah. I’ll never understand why people have accepted the corporate media’s use of mostly U-3 data. I think U-6 likely reflects things in a much more realistic way.