Data shows the headline unemployment rate continued to climb and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month
The US labor market grew by more than expected last month, recovering some of the damage inflicted by the federal government shutdown, according to official data.
An estimated 105,000 jobs were lost in October, and 64,000 were added in November, a highly-anticipated report showed on Tuesday.
Jobs growth was higher in November than anticipated by many economists, with a consensus forecast of some 40,000 jobs added. But the headline unemployment rate continued to climb – and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month.
The latest jobs numbers, typically released monthly, were delayed due to the government shutdown. They land amid significant uncertainty surrounding the strength of the US economy.
There are many different accepted methodologies for measuring unemployment. For some reason the media only focuses on the U-3 value, and I agree that is highly misleading.
It sounds like the relevant statistic you are looking for is the U-6 value. U-6 is currently measured at a relative high of 8.7%. That is 30 million Americans who are unemployed or underemployed.
You can find all the data at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Alternative measures of labor underutilization
Yeah. I’ll never understand why people have accepted the corporate media’s use of mostly U-3 data. I think U-6 likely reflects things in a much more realistic way.