socialmedian: Layoffs Slacken. U6 Soars to 17.5%

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Layoffs Slacken. U6 Soars to 17.5%

Source: Daily Kos

Nov 06, 2009

Summary

[bumped - BarbinMD]

Nonfarm payroll jobs fell another 190,000 October, and the U3 unemployment rate calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics rose to 10.2%, it was announced this morning. The layoffs were higher than the 175,000 consensus of 84 economists surveyed beforehand by Bloomberg. But the number was also the lowest monthly job loss recorded since August 2008, an indication that the grim job market is improving, but with painful slowness. Earlier predictions by some analysts of a possible net growth in manufacturing jobs failed to pan out. Instead, 61,000 jobs were shed in that sector.

The percentage of officially unemployed Americans rose to the highest level since April 1983, with 15.7 million out of work. An alternative gauge of unemployment used by the BLS, U6, rose to 17.5%, or 27 million Americans. Unlike U3, the U6 figure includes “discouraged workers” and those who are employed part time only because they can’t find full-time jobs.

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*Numbers in the above chart do not include the 824,000 lost jobs that the BLS wil