Unemployment rate 9.1%

[phantom power]

The number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.1
percent) were essentially unchanged in May. The labor force, at 153.7 million, was
little changed over the month. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.9 percent),
adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (24.2 percent), whites (8.0 percent), blacks
(16.2 percent), and Hispanics (11.9 percent) showed little or no change in May. The
jobless rate for Asians was 7.0 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1,
A-2, and A-3.)

In May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over)
increased by 361,000 to 6.2 million; their share of unemployment increased to 45.1
percent. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate was 64.2 percent for the fifth
consecutive month. The employment-population ratio remained at 58.4 percent in
May. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred
to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged in May at 8.5
million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut
back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)


http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[RC]

1. What I find amazing is that the unemployment rate is always under 10% almost all the time.

No matter the number of jobs created and lost, the number of people working or looking for work, major layoffs, the unemployment percentage doesn't change all that much. Except for short periods it is always under 10%.

[phantom power]

2. That number only includes people still looking for work.

If you include people who have basically given up, it's more like 16%. I wonder if that number is more volatile.

[hfojvt]

3. I thought one of the keys was this

maybe not from the BLS report, but from this article

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Employers-added-54K-jobs-rate-apf-3059717337.html?x=0

"Cities and counties have cut jobs for 22 straight months and have shed 446,000 positions since September 2008."

Yep, nothing like making a downturn even worse by budget cutting.