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ADA Updates

Official unemployment rate stays 9.7%, Real rate at 17.1%
Posted Apr 02 2010 at 11:27 AM
Updates >>

General Unemployment

Today’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report lists the officially measured unemployment rate as 9.7% for March 2010, painting a static employment picture. This figure also understates the true dimensions of the jobs crisis by not counting part-time employees who need, but can’t find, full-time work; and those without jobs who’ve given up looking for work.

Including these underemployed and discouraged workers yields a “real unemployment rate” of 17.1%, a more accurate indicator of the labor market . In addition, 5% of those currently employed work more than one job in order to support themselves and their families, showing the poor quality of jobs available.

Despite some optimistic signs of economic recovery, the Great Recession marches on. There are more than 15 million (up from 7.5 million in December 2007) unemployed Americans; a total of 8.4 million jobs have been lost during the recession, 36,000 in February alone; and there are 6.1 jobseekers for every job opening. Our economy will need to generate 11.1 million jobs to return to the pre-recession employment levels.

“The good news is that thinks are beginning to look up.” Said Michael J. Wilson, ADA’s National Director. “The bad news is that for more than 27 million people, looking up is not enough. There still aren’t enough jobs.”

How is this affecting our youth?

Marginal populations continue to suffer more than the mainstream during economic downturns, and young adults are no exception. Last month, the unemployment rate for those 20 years and older was 9.7%, while the teenage jobless rate was 26.1%. This 16.4 point gap between the two groups is highly significant . One source of the discrepancy is shown in the following figure, the figure below shows one source of this discrepancy, this is how teen workers occupy the “last hired, first fired” bottom rung on the job ladder .

 Education is a key aspect to improve employment prospects for young people (this actually applies to the entire workforce): the less education you have, the more likely you are to face unemployment. Among those 25-years-old and over, the unemployment rate for workers without a high school diploma is 14.5%; for high school graduates, 10.8%; for those with some college or an Associate’s degree, 8.2%; and for those with a Bachelor’s or higher degree, 4.9% .

But because the costs of college is becoming more and more of a burden to students and their parents—and more specifically to low-income families (figure 2) -- the Obama Administration is trying to make education one of its new priorities by proposing and financing new student loans programs (figure 3).