June 2012 Unemployment Report

June 2012

Unemployment Rate: 8.2 percent

Unemployed Americans: 12.7 million

Employment

• The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent for June 2012, which is virtually the same as May, and an increase of 80,000 nonfarm jobs.
• Most of the new jobs were in professional and business services, manufacturing, health care, and wholesale trade.
• This makes 41 straight months under President Obama with unemployment over 8 percent.
• The economy lost 473,000 net jobs since February 2009 when the Democrats’ “stimulus” was signed into law. President Obama promised an unemployment rate below 6 percent by this time.

“Real” Unemployment

• The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 14.9 percent for June 2012, which is an increase of 0.1 percent from May. This is the total percentage of unemployed workers, plus the marginally attached workers and part time workers for economic reasons.
• The “real” number of unemployed Americans is 23.4 million. These are people that are unemployed (12.7 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (2.5 million), or are working part-time because they can’t find full-time employment (8.2 million).
• The labor force participation rate is 63.8 percent, which is the same as May. At the Congressional Budget Office projected labor participation rate of 65.3 percent for 2012, the unemployment rate would be 10.3 percent.

Weeks, Hours & Wages

• The number of Americans searching for work for more than 27 weeks is 5.4 million. The average number of weeks a worker is unemployed is 39.9 weeks; this has doubled since President Obama took office.
• The average workweek for private nonfarm employees increased slightly to 34.5 hours.
• The average hourly private nonfarm payroll increased by 6 cents to $23.50.