Bureau of Labor Statistics

July Job Numbers Reveal Bad Economy and Donald Trump’s Appeal

WASHINGTON—On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor released employment numbers for July that look good from a distance, but under the surface, they show that millions of Americans are in dire economic straits, giving Donald Trump an opening to bring in voters who normally vote for Democrats.

Anxiety

Black Unemployment More than Twice as High As White Unemployment

According to the BLS, the African American unemployment rate remained more than twice as high as the unemployment rate among white workers, which declined from 4.4 percent in October to 4.3 percent in November. African American unemployment increased from 9.2 percent to 9.4 percent from October to November.

The Associated Press

Record 94,610,000 Americans Not in Labor Force

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that a record 94,610,000 people (ages 16 and over) were not in the labor force in September. In other words they were neither employed nor had made specific efforts to find work in the prior four weeks.

AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Gallup Ignores All-Time High Food Stamp Usage As Reason For 7-Year Low Percentage Americans Struggling To Afford Food

Gallup explains its poll results in terms of an “improving U.S. job market,” at a time when a record 93,194,000 Americans were not in the labor force in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In addition, though Gallup shows a 3.5 percent decrease in the percentage of blacks struggling to afford food, data released Friday by the BLS shows that the unemployment rate for African Americans was nearly twice the national average, and more than double the unemployment rate for whites last month.

food-stamps-generic-ap

American Economy Still Down by 5.9 Million Jobs Since 2008

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) just published the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) report for February. The job openings percent for the workforce hit a 14 year high of 5.1 million, while the layoffs and discharges percentage stayed at a historic low. But despite the job availability rate more than doubling since 2009, the hiring rate only grew by 30 percent in the same period. Adjusted for population growth, the American economy is still down by 5.9 million jobs.

J Pat Carter/AP Photo