This is from the D.O.L.


Household Survey Data
In September, the
unemployment rate
declined by 0.2 percentage poin
t to 5.9 percent. The number of
unemployed persons
decreased by 329,000 to 9.3 million. Over
the year, the unemployment rate and
the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.3
percentage points and 1.9 million, respectively.
(See table A-1.)
Among the
major worker groups
, unemployment rates declined in September for adult men (5.3
percent), whites (5.1 percent), and
Hispanics (6.9 percent). The rates for adult women (5.5 percent),
teenagers (20.0 percent), and blacks (
11.0 percent) showed little change over the month. The jobless rate
for Asians was 4.3 percent (not seasonally adjusted),
little changed from a year
earlier. (See tables A-1,
A-2, and A-3.)
- 2 -
Among the unemployed, the number of
job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs
decreased by 306,000 in September to 4.5 million. The number of
long-term unemployed
(those
jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially uncha
nged at 3.0 million in September. These individuals
accounted for 31.9 percent of the unemployed. Over
the past 12 months, the number of long-term
unemployed is down by 1.2 million. (See tables A-11 and A-12.)
The
civilian labor force participation rate
, at 62.7 percent, changed little in September. The
employment-population ratio
was 59.0 percent for the fourth c
onsecutive month. (See table A-1.)
The number of persons employed
part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as
involuntary part-time workers) was
little changed in September at
7.1 million. These individuals, who
would have preferred full-time employment, were wo
rking part time because their hours had been cut
back or because they were unable to
find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)
In September, 2.2 million persons were
marginally attached to the labor force
, essentially unchanged
from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjust
ed.) These individuals were not in the labor force,
wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They
were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the
survey. (See table A-16.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 698,000
discouraged workers
in September, down by
154,000 from a year earlier. (The data
are not seasonally adjusted.) Di
scouraged workers are persons not
currently looking for work because they believe
no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.5
million persons marginally attached to the labor fo
rce in September had not searched for work for
reasons such as school attendance or fa
mily responsibilities.


Little or no change. Still hiding the real unemployment numbers, like the good little Lib that you are.

Why do you think there is this big push for the minimum wage to be increased?, because so many people have been forced into part time jobs...Mainly because of the ACA.

The labor force participation rate is at a low point
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Mark Walker fills out an application at a job fair at the Matrix Center April 23, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan.
by Mitchell Hartman
Wednesday, November 5, 2014 - 10:00

The monthly employment report from the Department of Labor will likely show the economy added approximately 240,000 jobs in October, and unemployment held steady at 5.9 percent, after falling below 6.0 percent in September for the first time since mid-2008.

Economists can point to steady improvement over the past several years in those two statistics—job creation, and the unemployment rate (which was 7.2 percent in September 2013, and 9 percent two years earlier).

Yet, this ‘official’ unemployment rate doesn’t accurately characterize many aspects of the labor market right now—in particular, how hard it still is to land a middle-income job; how easy it is for employers to find qualified candidates; and how little those employers have to compete with each other over wage and benefit offers, in order to hire the workers they want.

The ‘official’ unemployment rate—called the U-3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—only counts how many people are actively unemployed. They’re looking for work and actually applied for a job in the past four weeks.

But right now, the number of people who are not working, but would like to work, is unprecedentedly high. These people have given up looking—possibly because they don’t think any jobs are available for them, or perhaps to attend school and upgrade their skills, or to go into semi-retirement. They’ve pushed down the labor force participation rate to its lowest level (62.7 percent in September) since the late 1970s.

Combine these discouraged and marginally attached workers with the ‘underemployed’—people who would like to find better-paying full-time jobs but can only find part-time jobs—and total unemployment (the U-6 rate), as measured by the BLS, is averaging well over 12 percent in 2014 (it was 11.8 percent in September).

Economists have anticipated that some attrition in the labor market would occur when the Baby Boomers began retiring earlier this decade. But in fact, after the recession, older workers have stayed on the job longer than was predicted, on average. With retirement savings and home equity depleted by the recession, older Americans are holding on to jobs if they can.

“Where we’re seeing large declines in labor force participation is actually among prime-age workers,” explains University of California-Berkeley economist Jesse Rothstein, “especially among people in their early twenties. It’s hard for me to believe that there’s this enormous group of people in their early twenties who have decided that they’re never going to work.”

Rothstein and many other economists believe the economy hasn’t changed structurally so that fewer people want to work or feel the financial need to work. Rather, they think the labor market is simply too weak, and demand in the economy too anemic, to employ all the potential workers who want and need jobs. They believe if the economy strengthens significantly, many of those potential workers will come out of the woodwork and begin job-hunting again.

Absent such improvement, the labor market is likely to remain slack, even if the official unemployment rate continues to decline steadily and eventually dips below the Federal Reserve’s target of 5.5 percent. Fed policymakers, led by chair Janet Yellen, have said they are looking at other labor market indicators in addition to the unemployment rate, to make sure they don’t withdraw economic stimulus and kill the nascent recovery before it’s helped the hard-core and long-term unemployed, the underemployed, and discouraged workers.

Rising wages are now considered a key harbinger of labor-market tightening by market participants and Fed policymakers, explains economist John Canally at LPL Financial.

“I think that’s the ultimate indicator—to get wage growth back to normal, back to the 3.5-percent-to-4.5-percent gains we saw prior to the Great Recession,” said Canally. “Then I think there’ll be confidence that businesses are finding it more and more difficult to fill jobs.”

In recent years, average hourly earnings have been rising in the 2-percent-per-year range, just keeping pace with inflation.

Another indicator of a tightening labor market would be a reverse in recent declines in labor force participation, especially among prime-age workers. If more people who have dropped out of the workforce, or never entered it after high school or college, started looking for work again, that might raise the unemployment rate temporarily. But it would be another sign the economy is truly on the mend.

These selected numbers look very good. Unfortunately, if you look at the whole picture, the job situation is very poor, having steadily declined over Obama's presidency. The rest of the story:

1. The unemployment rate can NOT be logically be compared from one year another, unless the workforce participation rate remains stable. Obama's policies have removed so many people from the workforce that the workforce participation rate has dropped from a stable 66% +/- .2% to 62.7% in September 2014. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000

2. Of those remaining in the workforce, as defined in the workforce participation rate, a significant percentage are now part time employees, and this will increase as the economic damage of Obamacare develops further.

There's no reason for the steadily worsening employment picture to begin to improve unless the new Congress can reverse and correct Obama's many efforts to damage our economy and job picture.

By Joseph Lawler | November 6, 2014 | 9:01 am

The four-week moving average of jobless claims fell to its lowest level in 14 years Thursday, as...
The four-week moving average of jobless claims fell to its lowest level in 14 years Thursday, as layoffs continue to slow and the labor market picks up.

The Department of Labor reported Thursday that initial claims for unemployment insurance fell by 10,000 to 278,000 for the week ending Nov. 1.

That drop brought the four-week moving average for claims down to 279,000, the lowest level since April 29, 2000.

The total number of unemployed workers receiving benefits was 2,348,000. That number was also the lowest since 2000.

The ongoing improvement in unemployment claims sets up high expectations for the monthly jobs number that will be reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday morning.

Analysts expect the report to show robust growth of about 240,000 new payroll jobs.

Job creation has accelerated in 2014, with businesses and governments adding roughly 230,000 new jobs a month, well above the pace set in the previous years of the economic recovery. The unemployment rate has slipped from 6.7 percent to 5.9 percent over the year.

That is partly a factor of slowing layoffs, but it also reflects an acceleration in new job listings over theyears. Job vacancies are up roughly a quarter year-over-year.