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Unemployment By State

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According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ most recent data broken down by state (released in December for the month of November), Hawaii had the lowest unemployment at 2.0% followed by several Western States including North Dakota (2.6%), Nebraska (2.7%), Colorado, Idaho and Iowa all at 2.9%.  Somehow New Hampshire managed to also be among the lowest also at 2.7% with Vermont at 2.9%.

Although California has been touted as having the fastest growing labor force it ranked number 35 in unemployment rates with unemployment at 4.6% well below the national average of 4.1%.

Unemployment by State

The following table lists the  [Read more…] about Unemployment By State

What You Can do When Your Unemployment Benefits are Denied

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DeniedBenefits denied!

That’s the last thing you want to hear after losing your job and applying for unemployment benefits. But, don’t give up! There’s still hope, thanks mainly to the appeal process.

Reasons for Denial

There are several valid reasons for denial of benefits, including:

  • Voluntarily leaving the workplace without just cause
  • Being discharged for work misconduct
  • Not being able or available for work
  • Refusing an offer of suitable work
  • Knowingly making false statements to obtain benefits

If you don’t agree with the reason provided for the denial of unemployment benefits, you can appeal the decision. So, how exactly do you appeal a denial of unemployment benefits?

Act Fast

Time is key in the appeal process. Depending on the state’s requirements, you have somewhere between 10 and 30 days to request an appeal. Unemployment agencies are sticklers for timeframes so missing a deadline without good reason will not help your chances.

It’s OK to go Pro Se

You don’t have to hire an attorney to [Read more…] about What You Can do When Your Unemployment Benefits are Denied

September Unemployment Rate Down

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On Friday October 6th the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly employment survey results for the month of September. Every month the BLS conducts two surveys one contacts a sampling of households and the other collects data from businesses. Then they massage some of the numbers to “Seasonally Adjust” them and release them to the media.

According to the BLS, the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate for September (released October 6th) is 4.2% DOWN from 4.4% in August. The current “Unadjusted” rate is 4.1% down from 4.5% in August.

Seasonal adjustment provides something like a moving average leveling out the bumps due to normal seasonal variations. See: Unadjusted vs. Seasonally Adjusted Unemployment Rate for more information about Seasonal Adjustment.

According to the BLS Commissioner’s report for this month:

“The unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-33,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. A sharp employment decline in food services and drinking places and below-trend growth in some other industries likely reflected the impact of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. “

Seasonally Adj U-3 Unemployment Rate

See: Current Unemployment Rate Chart for more info.

In the very next paragraph, based on the Household Unemployment Survey, he said, “The unemployment rate decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 4.2 percent in September, and the number of unemployed persons declined by 331,000 to 6.8 million. Both measures were down over the year.”

Declining unemployment means more jobs! So which is it 331,000 more jobs?  -33,000 fewer jobs? Or 340,000 more jobs? [Read more…] about September Unemployment Rate Down

August Unemployment Numbers

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The U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the August unemployment numbers today. The BLS Commissioner says: “Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 156,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 4.4 percent. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and technical services, health care, and mining. Employment growth has averaged 176,000 per month thus far this year, about in line with the average monthly gain of 187,000 in 2016.”

Actual employment in July was 146,330,000 and 146,541,000 in August for a net gain of 211,000 even though according to the Commissioner it was 156,000 on a “Seasonally Adjusted” basis.

  • Adjusted U-3 Unemployment was 4.4% up from 4.3% in July.
  • Unadjusted U-3 Unemployment was 4.5% down from 4.6% in July.
  • Employment Increase 156,000 on a “Seasonally Adjusted” or 211,000 non-adjusted.
  • U-6 Unemployment was 8.6% down from 8.9% in July.

August Employment Gain and Loss Bubbles

In the following chart from the BLS we can see [Read more…] about August Unemployment Numbers

Worldwide Unemployment Rates

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OECD Unemployment
Image courtesy of: BlogPiks.com

On Friday August 11th the OECD published the Unemployment rates of its member countries. They call it the “Harmonised Unemployment Rate” meaning that they may adjust the rate depending on how the individual countries calculate it so they are comparable.

Note: The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade, headquartered in Paris France. In addition to its other functions the OECD publishes books, reports, statistics, working papers and reference materials.

The countries with the highest unemployment rates were:

 

Top 6 Highest Unemployment Rates in OECD Countries

Based on the most recent numbers we have for each country, we can see from the table below that the six countries with the highest unemployment rates are all [Read more…] about Worldwide Unemployment Rates

1 Million Fewer Jobs but BLS Says 209 K More

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U-3 Unemployment

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their employment and unemployment numbers for July on Friday August 4th.  The Seasonally adjusted U-3 unemployment rate was down from 4.4% in June to 4.3% in July. Unadjusted U-3 however was up from 4.5% to 4.6%. U3 is the Official unemployment rate per the International Labor Organization definition. It occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.

U-6 Unemployment

U-6 unemployment is the broadest category of unemployment and includes U3 plus “discouraged workers”, plus other “marginally attached workers”, plus part-time workers who want to work full-time, but cannot due to economic reasons. U-6 was unchanged from June at 8.9%.

 

Employment

The Commissioner of the BLS released this statement, “Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 209,000 in July, and the unemployment rate, at 4.3 percent, was little changed. Job gains occurred in food services and drinking places, professional and business services, and health care. Employment growth has averaged 184,000 per month thus far this year, in line with the  average monthly gain in 2016 (+187,000). “

However if we look at the actual employment data we get a different picture.  [Read more…] about 1 Million Fewer Jobs but BLS Says 209 K More

Comparing Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Numbers to an Independent Source

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NOTE: Gallup has STOPPED publishing their Unemployment Numbers effective in July 2017. This includes U-3, Underemployment (U-6), and Good Jobs Index (Payroll to Population Rate).

From 2010-2017,  the Gallup Survey people both generated numbers to help us understand the employment/unemployment situation. Unfortunately, they often presented a different picture from the numbers generated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Typically the BLS data presented a rosier picture than the independently surveyed Gallup numbers.

Often in the summer, the gap between the BLS and the Gallup closed. In July 2016, the BLS and the Gallup numbers came in identical. Early in 2017 the gap widened to 1.3% in April but has narrowed again to 0.6% in June.

For June 2017 Gallup said unadjusted U-3 unemployment was 5.1% down from 5.2% in May and 5.4% in April while the BLS said it was 4.5% up from 4.1% in May and April. So the spread is currently 0.6%.

Whose Unemployment Numbers are Right?

There has been some talk about “full employment” in the media of late and if we look at the Unemployment numbers created by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) we might get that impression. If we look at the Employment numbers rather than the Unemployment Rate we see a significant increase but it hasn’t been until recent months that the increase has actually outpaced the growth in the population.

We’ve looked at Employment vs. Unemployment on other pages to see how they compare and we’ve looked at U-6 (total labor force including those who’ve given up looking) vs. U-3 (those who are still actively looking).  The U-3 unemployment rate is the commonly quoted one. But the one problem is that all that data comes from the government. If they are fudging the numbers how would we know? Unless as we’ve noted before there are inconsistencies between the Unemployment and Employment Charts. But we  [Read more…] about Comparing Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment Numbers to an Independent Source

Why the U.S. Isn’t at “Full Employment” Yet

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The news is bristling with excitement as all the major media outlets are jumping on today’s employment numbers hot off the Bureau of Labor Statistics presses. The BLS reported that the Seasonally Adjusted U-3 unemployment rate was just 4.4% and the unadjusted broader based U-6 was just 8.1%.

In response to all this good news The New York Times said, “We’re Getting Awfully Close to Full Employment” and The Wall Street Journal trumpeted “Jobs Report: This Is What Full Employment Looks Like” so who am I to throw cold water on their parade? Well, at least I’m not the only one to have my doubts. Jared Bernstein at The Washington Post thinks that the current low inflation level is a factor that may indicate that we aren’t quite there yet. So I’m adding my own two-cents with the following chart. We regularly publish the U-6 minus U-3 chart which shows the differential between the ordinary unemployed U-3 and the bottom of the barrel unemployed U-6. By definition, in order to be at “full-employment” everyone who wants a job has to have one.  That doesn’t mean Zero unemployment because there is a bit of friction in the system and so when people change jobs they are temporarily “unemployed” so there will always be some. Historically, this was assumed to be around 3% unemployment. So as the U-3 unemployment approaches 3% the U-6 people get drawn into the market. They may not have the skills or the ambition or the whatever but now they can find a job because companies are desperate.

So by looking at the U-6 minus the U-3 we can get a very good picture of when we are nearing “full employment”. So let’s look at that chart. [Read more…] about Why the U.S. Isn’t at “Full Employment” Yet

January Unemployment

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Unemployment RateThe U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the newest unemployment data for January 2017 on Friday, February 3rd. According to the BLS, the current “Seasonally Adjusted” Unemployment Rate is 4.8% up from 4.7% in December and 4.6% in November but still below the 4.9% in October.

The current “Unadjusted” rate is 5.1% up from 4.5% in December and 4.4% in November. Typically unadjusted unemployment rates jump in January for “Seasonal” reasons which is why we see a large jump in the unadjusted rates but a much smaller jump in the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. See Current Unemployment Rate for more info.

 

U.S. Employment ChartThe number of Unadjusted jobs reported for January was [Read more…] about January Unemployment

5 Tips to Manage House Payments While You’re Unemployed

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Manage Mortgage When UnemployedWhile you may not look forward to going to work every morning, it does provide the income that you need to make the mortgage payment. However, if you are out of work, it doesn’t mean that you should immediately look to sell the family home. Obviously, the best solution would be to plan ahead and pay into an emergency fund which optimally would cover 6 months of living expenses. But what if you weren’t that farsighted?

Here are some ways to manage the mortgage payment until you can get back to work:

1) Apply for Unemployment Benefits

The first thing to do when you become unemployed is to apply for unemployment benefits through your state unemployment agency. Often it takes time to be eligible for benefits or to wade through all the “red tape” before you actually get your benefits. So it pays to start early. Unemployment benefits vary by state with high cost states like Massachusetts paying as much as $993 per week for 30 weeks. But most states limit benefits to a maximum of 26 weeks  and pay less than $500 per week. Note: While you are collecting unemployment benefits might be a good time to acquire new skills that make you more employable. See: Highly Skilled Worker Shortage in a Recession?

2) Call the Lender

The next thing that you should do is [Read more…] about 5 Tips to Manage House Payments While You’re Unemployed