Unemployment numbers shows jobs up, but not by enough
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Donald Marron Guest blogger
Another聽weak jobs report聽with payrolls up only 80,000, unemployment stuck at 8.2 percent, and underemployment ticking up to 14.9 percent.
But the real news聽continues to be聽how far employment has fallen.聽As recently as 2006, more than 63 percent of adults had a job. Today, that聽figure is less than 59 percent.
With the exception of the past several years, you鈥檝e got to go back almost three decades聽to find the last time that so few Americans were employed (as a share of the adult population).
The stunning decline in the employment-to-population ratio (epop聽to its friends) reflects two related factors. First,聽the unemployment rate has increased from less than 5 percent to more than 8 percent. That accounts for roughly half the fall in epop. The other half reflects lower labor force participation. Slightly more than 66 percent of adults were in the labor force back them, but now it鈥檚 less than 64聽percent.
