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Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog US Unemployment Falls to 5Year Low of 6.7% in December but Job Growth Slows January 11, 2014 Terms of Use: These slides are provided under Creative Commons License Attribution—Share Alike 3.0 . You are free to use these slides as a resource for your economics classes together with whatever textbook you are using. If you like the slides, you may also want to take a look at my textbook, Introduction to Economics, from BVT Publishing.

Unemployment Falls to 5-Year Low
of 6.7 Percent  The US unemployment rate fell to 6.7% in December 2013, the lowest since October 2008.  The unemployment rate is the ratio of unemployed persons to the labor force. The labor force decreased by 347,000 for the month. The number of employed workers rose by 143,000 and the number of unemployed decreased by 490,000  The unemployment rate is based on a survey of households that includes selfemployed and farm workers  Data for earlier months were revised, in most cases by 0.1 percentage points or less January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Broad vs. Standard Unemployment Rate
 The BLS also provides a broader measure of job-market stress, U-6  The numerator of U-6 includes  Unemployed persons  Marginally attached persons who would like to work but are not looking because they think there are no jobs, or for personal reasons  Part-time workers who would prefer full-time work but can’t find it  The denominator includes the labor force plus the marginally attached  U-6 was unchanged in December January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

74,000 Payroll Jobs  Payroll
jobs grew by just 74,000 in December, well below expectations and the slowest rate for more than two years  The payroll jobs data are come from a separate survey of employers; the number of jobs it reports can differ from the household survey  November job growth was revised up to from 203,000 to 241,000  Goods producing industries lost jobs, mostly in construction, but manufacturing gained slightly  The federal, state and local governments also lost jobs during the month January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Involuntary Part-time Work Little Changed
 One component of the broad unemployment rate consists of people working part-time “for economic reasons,” popularly known as “involuntary part-time” employment.  This category includes workers who would like full-time work but can’t find it, or whose employers have cut their hours below full time  Involuntary part-time work, which has been elevated throughout the recession and recovery, was little changed in December January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Long-term Unemployment Falls to Low
for Recovery  The recession and slow recovery have been characterized by unusually high levels of long-term unemployment  The percentage of the unemployed out of work for 27 weeks or more rose in December for the second month in a row, erasing some of the gains made earlier in the year January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Employment-Population Ratio Near All-Time Low
 The civilian employment-population ratio was unchanged in December at 58.6, the same as in December a year ago  The continuing low employmentpopulation ratio, which fell sharply during the recession, reflects both a weak economy and an aging population January 11, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

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