May 2012 Unemployment Report

May 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 May 2012, up 0.1 percent from April, and an increase of 69,000 nonfarm jobs.
• Most of the new jobs were in health care, transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade.
• This makes 40 straight months under President Obama with unemployment over 8 percent.
• The economy lost 552,000 net jobs since February 2009 when the Democrats’ “stimulus” was signed into law. President Obama promised 6 percent unemployment by this time.

“Real” Unemployment

• The “real” unemployment or U-6 rate is 14.8 percent for May 2012, which is an increase of 0.3 percent in April. 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 23.2 million. These are people that are unemployed (12.7 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (2.4 million), or are working part-time because they can’t find full-time employment (8.1 million).
• The labor force participation rate is 63.8 percent, which is up 0.2 percent from April. 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 39.7 weeks; this has doubled since President Obama took office.
• The average workweek for private nonfarm employees remained the same at 34.4 hours.
• The average hourly private nonfarm payroll increased by 2 cents to $23.41.