July 2014 Unemployment Report

Unemployment Rate:            6.2 percent

Unemployed Americans:         9.7 million

Employment and Unemployment

• The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 6.2percent for July 2014, an increase of 0.1 percentage point. It reported an increase of 209,000 nonfarm jobs over last month. Economists surveyed anticipated job growth of 230,000. Employment for June was revised up from 288,000 to 298,000 jobs created, and May was revised up from 224,000 to 229,000.   
• The number of unemployed people in July was 9.5 million, an increase of 200,000 from last month.
• The “real” number of unemployed Americans is 19.4 million. These are people who are unemployed (9.7 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (2.2 million), or are working part time because they cannot find full time employment (7.5 million).
• In July, there were 2.2 million discouraged workers. Among these workers are 741,000 who have stopped looking for employment, believing no work is available. This is up from 676,000 last month. 
• The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 12.2 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from June. This is the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers.
• In July, employment grew by 47,000 in professional and business services; 28,000 in manufacturing; 26,700 in retail trade; and 22,000 in construction. Employment in hospitals decreased by 7,100; and it decreased by 7,200 in nursing and residential care facilities. Employment in federal government (including the Postal Service) and state government each fell by 1,000 while employment in local government grew by 12,000. 

Labor Force Participation

• The labor force participation rate is 62.9 percent, little changed from the previous two months and remaining near the lowest level in 36 years. Labor force participation is down 0.5 percentage point year over year. 
• If the labor force participation rate were the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.2 percent.
• The share of American adults with jobs in July was 59.0 percent, an increase of 0.3 percentage point over the year, and little changed for the last five months. This is more than four percentage points below its pre-recession peak. 
• The number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 27 weeks or longer) is 3.2 million Americans, up 0.1 over the last month. This represents 32.9 percent of unemployed people. During the 1980s, when our country faced a similar recessionary period, the proportion of long-term unemployed never exceeded 27 percent. 
• Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen has raised concern with the consistent number of Americans working part time for economic reasons – because they cannot find a full-time position or their hours have been cut back. Today’s report shows this figure to be 7.5 million, little changed from last month. 
• Among the unemployed, the number of reentrants and new entrants to the workforce are both down over the last year. The number of unemployed reentrants to the workforce declined by 386,000 compared to July 2013 to 2.9 million. The number of new entrants to the workforce fell by 159,000 compared to July 2013, to 1.1 million.