2012 October Unemployment by the Numbers

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced that the unemployment rate in October rose to 7.9 percent, marking another disappointing unemployment report under the failed policies of President Obama. While the announcement that jobs were added is welcomed, Americans continue to suffer through a painfully tepid recovery and many Americans have simply given up their search for a job. The labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of able Americans working or looking for work, remained near a 30-year low in October. And sadly, the real rate of unemployment which measures those who cannot find adequate work was 14.6 percent in October.

• 7.9%: The unemployment rate for the month of October was 7.9 percent, an increase from 7.8 percent in September.

• 12,258,000: There were 12.2 million unemployed Americans in the month of October. There have been more than 12 million unemployed Americans every month that President Obama has been in office.

• 23,035,000: The total number of “underemployed” Americans is 23 million, including those unemployed (12.2 million), those who want a job but are no longer looking for work (2.4 million), and those who are working part-time because no other work is available (8.3 million).

• 5.5%: The Obama administration claimed unemployment would be less than 6 percent today if the “stimulus” was signed into law was below 6 percent.

• 9%: Since the president’s failed $1.2 trillion “stimulus” was enacted in February 2009 unemployment has averaged 9.1 percent.

• 63.8%: The labor force participation rate, which measures the percentage of able Americans working or looking for work, remained near a 30-year low at 63.8 percent in October.  Much of the recent decline in the unemployment rate can be attributed to the historic drop in labor force participation as more and more American give up on finding a job.  That means that 36.3 percent of able-bodied, non-elderly Americans are not even looking for a job in the Obama economy.

• 14.6%: The rate of “underemployment” or “real unemployment,” including the unemployed, those who want work but have stopped searching in this economy, and those who are forced to work part-time because they cannot find full-time employment is 14.6 percent, rising for the third month in a row.

• 8,344,000: The number of Americans forced to work only part-time in October because they could not find full-time employment was 8.3 million.

• 2,433,000: The number of people who have looked for a job at some point in the last year but are not counted as unemployed because they gave up their search is now 2.4 million.

• 40.2: The average number of weeks it takes for job seekers to find a job rose to 40.2 weeks in October, another sign that the president’s failed policies making harder for Americans for find a job.  The average time it took to find when President Obama took office was 19.8 weeks.

• 5,002,000: The long-term unemployed, measured by the number of Americans unemployed and searching for work for more than 27 weeks, was 5 million in the month of October.  Since President Obama took office in January 2009, the number of people unemployed for more than 27 weeks has increased by 90 percent.
• 15 percent: The official poverty rate in 2011 according to the Census Bureau— the same as 2010 and up from 14.3 percent in 2009. This was the highest poverty rate since 1993.

• $4,019: According to a recent study, when the president signed the so-called “stimulus,” the average U.S. household income was $54,964. Today, it is $50,964 and has fallen by $4,019 as a result of the job-destroying policies of President Obama.

• 46,681,833: The number of Americans receiving food stamps as of July  was 46.6 million—the most in one month ever.  Today, 15 percent of Americans receive food stamps, an increase of 45 percent since President Obama took office.

• 13^th: Where the U.S. ranks in ease of starting a business in the world according to a World Bank report.  In 2007, the U.S. ranked 3^rd.

• 1,301,000: The number of first-time job seekers that are unemployed is now 1.3 million. The number of new workers who cannot find a job has been above 1 million for 41 months. It’s little wonder that more than 50 percent of recent college graduates are unemployed. About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed.

• 23.7%: The unemployment rate among job seekers between the ages of 16 and 19 was 24 percent in October. Youth unemployment has been above 23 percent for 42 months, the longest streak since the Great Depression.

• 14.3%: The unemployment rate among African Americans in October was 14.3 percent, a sharp increase from 13.4 percent in September.

• 10%: The unemployment rate among Hispanics and Latinos in October was 10 percent, up from 9.9 percent in September.

• $1,180,000,000,000:  The total cost of the Democrats’ “stimulus.” CBO estimates the cost of the bill will reach $833 billion and interest on the debt for the bill will be at least $347 billion.

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