The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the unemployment rate information for the month of April. The typically quoted “Seasonally Adjusted U-3” rate fell from 6.7% in March to 6.3% in April. The unadjusted U-3 was even lower at 5.9%. The broadest measure of unemployment which includes those who “would like” and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently and also includes part-time workers who want to work full-time is U-6 and the BLS determined that that rate is 11.8% down from 12.8% in March.
The BLS numbers continue to be much rosier than their counterparts determined by Gallup Polls. According to Gallup the adjusted U-3 is 7.5% (compared to BLS’ 6.3%), the unadjusted U-3 is 7.1% (vs 5.9%) and U-6 is still a whopping 16.6% (not 11.8%).
In addition according to Gallup the U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), which is the percentage of the adult population that is working full-time for an employer was 43.4% in April up slightly from 42.7% in March. The average P2P for 2012 was 44.4% and for 2013 was 43.8% so we have not even reached those levels yet after declining sharply in January indicating that this has been a very anemic recovery in spite of the unprecedented level of quantitative easing.
The U-3 Current US Unemployment Rate Chart shows the full picture of unemployment rates since [Read more…] about BLS Releases April Unemployment Rates