Jobless Rate Still Bleak, with 15.4 Million Workers Unemployed

by Tula Connell, Dec 4, 2009

The nation's unemployment rate moved from 10.2 percent to 10 percent in November, with 15.4 million American workers unemployed, according to U.S. Department of Labor data released this morning. But when both unemployed and underemployed workers are counted, there still are some 26 million people without jobs or full-time work. At the start of the recession in December 2007, there were 7.5 million jobless workers and the unemployment rate was 4.9 percent

Economic Policy Institute (EPI) Director Larry Mishel says he would not interpret this decline as the beginning of a ongoing reversal in the unemployment rate. In fact, the jobs situation likely will worsen for up to the next 12 months, he says. One reason: There is a backlog of  people who dropped out of labor force who will come back in—up to 3 million jobless workers. And when they start looking for jobs again unemployment will rise.

Unemployment rates for adult men now is 10.5 percent, 7.9 percent for women and 26.7 percent for teens. The jobless rate for white workers is 9.3 percent, 15.6 percent for African Americans, 12.7 for Hispanics and 7.3 percent for Asians.

EPI economist Heidi Shierholz says layoffs are still high but have gone way down from where they were. Yet, "hiring isn't happening." There's definitely fewer people losing their jobs each month, but the job creation isn't there to help unemployed workers get jobs.

There is more good news/bad news as we enter the 15th month of the Great Recession, says Shierholz. Hiring of temporary workers has increased for the past three months, which is an indicator that employers are testing the waters to increase staff. But hours need to rise before a recovery for jobless workers is really in sight—and so far, the number of hours worked remains flat, hovering at 33 hours per week since summer — the shortest on modern record.

There are now more than six U.S. workers for every one job available — and that's the part of the jobs crisis that gets most attention. But something more insidious also is occurring: Wages are declining while productivity is skyrocketing. So not only are you facing a lack of jobs, but you are also facing smaller paychecks. They are telling you to accept it, saying economic times are tough, and you look at the guy telling you who's driving a Lexus and you wonder, "How is he suffering?"

Compensation so far in 2009 has been cut by the largest amount in nearly two decades, with a government index of real average weekly earnings down 1.9 percent since its high point last December. But in the third quarter of this year, productivity grew at a faster rate (8.1 percent) than hourly compensation (5.4 percent).

At yesterday's White House jobs summit, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka took the pain of America's workers directly to the president, telling him: We need jobs now. Trumka discussed the AFL-CIO's five-point plan for immediate job creation, which includes increasing aid to state and local governments to prevent layoffs and maintain vital services and creating jobs through funding projects like repairing and building infrastructure. Economists like Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman say that now is not the time to cut the federal deficit — that in fact, without spending money to create jobs immediately, the nation will return to an official recession.

Private-sector corporations — some of whom have made off with billions in taxpayer money — have failed to create jobs. Corporations didn't hesitate to ask for help from the government — and America's workers deserve no less. Congress and the White House need to act immediately.

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