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Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog US Unemployment Drops to 7.7 Percent, Lowest Since 2008 March 8, 2013 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 Rate Falls to 7.7
Percent The US unemployment rate fell to 7.7% in February, the lowest since January 2008. (The rate was reported at 7.7% once before, in November 2012, but that was later revised up to 7.8%.) The unemployment rate is the ratio of unemployed persons to the labor force. The labor force decreased by 130,000 for the month. The number of employed workers rose by 170,000 and the number of unemployed fell by 300,000 The unemployment rate is based on a survey of households that includes self- employed and farm workers March 8, 2013 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 fell to 14.3 percent in February, its lowest since the recovery began March 8, 2013 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Economy adds 236,000 Payroll Jobs
in February The private sector added 146,000 jobs in February while federal, state, and local government lost 10,000, continuing a long trend toward shrinking government employment The job increase was broad based, with construction, manufacturing, business services, and health care leading the way The jobs figure is based on a survey of employers. It excludes self-employed and farm workers. March 8, 2013 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Long-term Unemployment Remains Stubbornly High
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 to 40.1 percent in February, after a dip in January The mean duration of unemployment increased to 36.9 weeks and the median duration to 17.8 weeks March 8, 2013 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Involuntary Part-Time Work Also Remains
High The number of people working part time for economic reasons also increased in February Those people are sometimes called “involuntary” part-time workers to distinguish them from people who regularly work part time because of childcare problems, family or personal obligations, school or training, retirement or Social Security limits on earnings, and other reasons March 8, 2013 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

The employmentsituation at a glanceThis
spider chart summarizesthe employment situation forFebruary 2013The zero mark in the centerof the chart represents theworst month for each indicatorsince the start of the recessionThe 100 mark represents thebest month for each indicatorimmediately before the onset ofthe recession

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