Friday, March 08, 2013

Many in US Give Up Looking for Employment

Unemployment Rate Down As Americans Give Up On Work

The U.S. unemployment rate is down, but that is because many Americans have given up looking for a job.

Dean Baker, an economist with the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, said Friday that the decline in U.S. labor force participation in this recent data release was “striking.”

Baker was unavailable to elaborate further.

The unemployment rate has dropped more than 40% of the way back to its pre-recession level, but the employment-to-population ratio is closer to its trough than its pre-recession peak. Fewer Americans are looking for employment.

While women have fared better than men in the job market, this is mostly because they did not take the same hit to employment at the start of the downturn in late 2008 early 2009, Baker said today.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported unemployment fell to 7.7% from 7.9%, but the drop was at least partially attributable to a decline in labor force participation, Baker says. The employment-to-population ratio (EPOP) was unchanged at 58.6 percent, exactly the same as the rate in February of 2012 and just 0.4 percentage points above the low hit in the summer of 2011. This compares with an EPOP of 63.0 percent in 2007, pre-crisis.

Friday employment numbers were much better than economists’ expectations, but the numbers still show a weak job market four years into the economic recovery.

“This shows the depth of the recent employment recession – worse than any other post-war recession – and the relatively slow recovery due to the lingering effects of the housing bust and financial crisis,” writes Bill McBride of Calculated Risk. McBride also noted that the participation rate was well below the 66% to 67% rate that was normal over the last 20 years, although he pointed out that part of that decline is due to demographics.

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