The Labor Department has released it official unemployment statistics for the month of August. The good news is that the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1% (from 6.2% in July to 6.1% in August). The bad news is that the unemployment rate seems stuck in the 6.1%-6.2% range -- where it has been for the last three months.
The number of unemployed people rose by about 16,000 people in August and the number of officially unemployed dropped by about 80,000. That would seem to be positive, but the size of the civilian workforce also dropped last month (from 156,023,000 in July to 155,929,000 in August). In other words, the unemployment rate drop was not because a lot of new jobs were created -- but because a lot more depurate people gave up trying to find work (and are no longer counted as employed, or as a part of the civilian workforce).
The Republicans keep saying they can create jobs by lowering corporate taxes, but the truth is that the corporations are sitting on trillions of dollars (more money than ever before) -- and still aren't creating jobs. There is no reason to believe that giving them even more money will create any jobs. They aren't creating jobs because demand for goods/services is low in our faltering economy, and their current workforce is sufficient to meet current demand.
The only way to spur large job creation is to create new demand -- and the only way to do that is to put more money in the hands of the masses (not the rich, who have all they need to spend). But the GOP's imposition of austerity is keeping money out of the economy, and keeping demand low.
Here is the official unemployment rate broken down demographically:
Adult men...............5.7%
Adult women...............5.7%
Teenagers (16-19)...............19.6%
Whites...............5.3%
Blacks...............11.4%
Hispanics...............7.5%
Asians...............4.5%
Less than HS diploma...............9.1%
High School grads...............6.2%
Some college or Assoc. Degree...............5.4%
Bachelor's Degree or more...............3.2%
And here are the other relevant statistics for August:
TOTAL SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORKFORCE:
155,959,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF PEOPLE UNEMPLOYED:
9,591,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
6.1%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed, but no longer counted officially because they haven't looked for work in four weeks):
2,141,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBER:
11,732,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
7.5%
NUMBER OF UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS (working part-time because full-time work is not available to them):
7,277,000
UNDEREMPLOYED WORKERS + UNEMPLOYED WORKERS:
19,009,000
UNDEREMPLOYMENT/UNEMPLOYMENT RATE:
12.19%
