Unemployment

Posted on June 6, 2014 by admin

• This is why it’s so hard to define unemployment, By Ylan Q. Mui, June 5, 2014, Washington Post: “What does it mean to be unemployed? Depends on what country you’re in.On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department is slated to release its monthly snapshot of the health of the labor market. Calculating the number of people who are unemployed seems like a pretty straightforward task. But the years since the Great Recession have highlighted the complexities of one of the country’s the most critical economic indicators. There is universal agreement that unemployed people meet two basic requirements: They don’t have a job, and they want a job. Those characteristics separate the unemployed from, say, your 90-year-old grandmother who is retired . . .”
• U.S. Payrolls Rose 217,000 in May, Unemployment at 6.3%, Nearly a 6-Year Low, By Victoria Stilwell, June 6, 2014, Bloomberg: “Payrolls pushed past their U.S. pre-recession peak for the first time in May, a milestone that’s been five years in the making. The 217,000 advance in hiring followed a 282,000 gain in April, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. It marked the fourth consecutive month employment increased by more than 200,000, the first time that’s happened since early 2000. The jobless rate unexpectedly held at an almost six-year low of 6.3 percent. ‘We’re seeing the continuation of solid payrolls gains, which is an accomplishment for the economy,’ said Laura Rosner, U.S. economist at BNP Paribas in New York . . .”