The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 6.1percent for June 2014, a decrease of 0.2 percentage point. It reported an increase of 288,000 nonfarm jobs over last month. Employment for May was revised up from 217,000 to 224,000 jobs created, and April was revised up from 282,000 to 304,000.
The number of unemployed people in June was 9.5 million, a decrease of 325,000 from last month.
The “real” number of unemployed Americans is 19.0 million. These are people who are unemployed (9.5 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (2.0 million), or are working part time because they cannot find full time employment (7.5 million).
In June, there remained 2.0 million discouraged workers. Among these workers are 676,000 who have stopped looking for employment, believing no work is available.
The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 12.1 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from May. This is the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers.
In June, employment grew by 16,000 in manufacturing, 17,000 in transportation and warehousing, 21,000 in health care, and 40,000 in retail trade. Employment in food manufacturing decreased by 4,800. Employment in federal government (including the Postal Service) and state government each grew by 2,000 while employment in local government grew by 22,000.
Labor Force Participation
The labor force participation rate is 62.8 percent, unchanged from the previous two months and remaining near the lowest level in 36 years. Labor force participation is down 0.7 percentage point year over year.
If the labor force participation rate were the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.2 percent.
The share of American adults with jobs in June was 59.0 percent, an increase of 0.3 percentage point for all of 2014. This is more than four percentage points below its pre-recession peak.
The number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer) is 3.1 million Americans. This represents 32.8 percent of unemployed people. During the 1980s, when our country faced a similar recessionary period, the proportion of long-term unemployed never exceeded 27 percent.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen raised concern with the consistent number of Americans working part time for economic reasons – because they cannot find a full-time position or their hours have been cut back. Today’s report shows this figure to be 7.5 million, an increase in part-time employment for economic reasons of 275,000 from last month.
The number of unemployed reentrants to the workforce declined by 150,000 compared to May 2014 and increased by 87,000 compared to April 2014. The number of unemployed new entrants to the workforce increased by 2,000 compared to May 2014 and has increased by 21,000 compared to April 2014.
