
BLS Reports 14.7% Unemployment Rate - treyfitty
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
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treyfitty
18 million reporting “temporary lay off” while 2 million jobs permanently
eliminated.

Other tidbits: Employment in information fell by 254,000 in April, driven by a
decline in motion picture and sound recording industries (-217,000).

The labor force participation rate decreased by 2.5 percentage points over the
month to 60.2 percent, the lowest rate since January 1973 (when it was 60.0
percent). Total employment, as measured by the household survey, fell by 22.4
million to 133.4 million. The employment-population ratio, at 51.3 percent,
dropped by 8.7 percentage points over the month. This is the lowest rate and
largest over-the-month decline in the history of the series (seasonally
adjusted data are available back to January 1948). (See table A-1.)

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SloopJon
For those who aren't a fan of monospaced text at 120 characters wide, there's
a PDF link at the bottom of the page that includes the tables and an FAQ list:

[https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf)

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elipsey
lol, am i the only one reading this with w3m _because_ i like that?

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elipsey
I'm trying to find an up to date graph of unemployment rate, over time,
showing U1 thourgh U6 rates, which seems the "big picture".

Has anyone been able to find this?

Edit: oh well, I found the table. i'll make my own graph :p

[https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm)

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pkaye
Try this. They have all the graphs from U1-U6.

[http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp](http://portalseven.com/employment/unemployment_rate_u6.jsp)

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treyfitty
I predict that unemployment figures next month will more than double: not
purely from double the job losses, but because the U3 unemployment rate
requires people “to be actively seeking employment” to be in the labor force.
Considering the BLS performs surveys to arrive at their labor force number,
many people will forego actively seeking status due to the $600/wk federal aid
and hence the denominator will be suppressed.

A more accurate number which reflects true job losses from the pandemic should
be the U6 Unemployment Rate (Referred to as the “real” unemployment rate).

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aaomidi
You're assuming people are able to sign up for unemployment... So many states
are having so many delays to get it.

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vmchale
We're going to see cascading effects from this.

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generalpass
State and local governments are about to fade into nothing. The report last
night that California is projecting a $54 billion shortfall hasn't had
traction anywhere. Note they spent years building up a $20 billion rainy day
fund. [1]

This is serious, because the cuts they are going to be forced to take are
incredible:

> Required funding for K-12 schools and community colleges will shrink by
> $18.3 billion, under Proposition 98’s constitutional calculation. That’s
> more than twice the $8.3 billion California spent out of its general fund
> last year on its university systems.

And even that article doesn't mention CalPERS, which is almost assuredly going
start hitting its limits where it requires local governments to contribute a
whole bunch more along with a bunch of other really bad stuff. The public
pensions/unions are the single powerful lobby in the state.

I'm betting California isn't even the worst, and I'm also betting the
shortfall will be yet higher.

I really do hope I'm wrong.

[1] Coronavirus blows a $54 billion hole in California’s budget. Here are the
“jaw-dropping” numbers Projected deficit nearly three times Rainy Day Fund

[https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/07/california-budget-
to-...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/07/california-budget-to-
take-54-3-billion-coronavirus-hit/)

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sjg007
The Feds could, you know, do something to help.

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beamatronic
But this is exactly what Republicans want. Shrink government spending.

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generalpass
Well, that's what they tell their constituents. In practice, they increase
budgets, run deficits, and increase debt every year.

