One weakness of the unemployment rate is that if people drop out of the
labor force they cannot be counted as an unemployed person and the
unemployment rate goes down. They are no longer actively seeking work
and it might be because they are discouraged workers. The lower
unemployment rate can be misleading in this case. People dropping out of
the labor force might indicate a weak labor market.
We could look at the employment to population ratio instead, since that
includes those not in the labor force. But that includes
everyone over 16 and that means that senior citizens are in the group
but many of them have retired. The more that retire, the lower this
ratio would be and that might be misleading. It would not necessarily
mean the labor market is weak.
But we have this ratio for people age 25-54 (which also eliminates many college age people who might not be looking for work).
The
percentage of 25-54 year olds employed was 80.7% in Mar. and 80.5% in
Feb. It was 80.6% in Jan. 2020 just before Covid. This is the first month since Covid began that we are above or equalled 80.6%. The last time it was higher was 80.8% in May, 2001.
It was 80.6% in Jan. 2020 and 69.6% in April 2020. Click here to see the BLS data. The unemployment rate was 3.5% in Mar. Click here to go to that data.
60.42% of the adult population was employed in Mar. (that is people 16 years old and older).
60.24% of the adult population was employed in Feb.
So up almost two tenths of a percent.
Here is the timeline graph of the percentage of 25-54 year olds employed since 2013.
Now since 1948
Now hours worked. This comes from the St. Louis FED. See Average Weekly Hours of All Employees, Total Private. They went from 34.5 in Feb. to 34.4 in Mar.
"Average weekly hours relate to the average hours per worker for which pay was received and is different from standard or scheduled hours. Factors such as unpaid absenteeism, labor turnover, part-time work, and stoppages cause average weekly hours to be lower than scheduled hours of work for an establishment. Group averages further reflect changes in the workweek of component industries. Average weekly hours are the total weekly hours divided by the employees paid for those hours."
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