The Bureau of Labor Statistics' new report showed that the US unemployment rate dipped slightly, dropping from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent in July, with nonfarm jobs rising by 117,000 last month.
As far as economic recovery goes, that number of jobs added in July “is still treading water,” according to Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Dr. Keith Hall in testimony he gave to the Joint Economic Committee in Washington, DC on Friday.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report said the number of unemployed people in the country was 13.9 million, which – along with the unemployment rate – “has shown little definitive movement.”
The labor force totaled 153.2 million people in July, the agency said.
The bureau said there were 6.2 million long-term unemployed Americans – or those jobless for 27 weeks or more – in July, accounting for 44.4 percent of the overall unemployment number.
During Hall's testimony on Friday, Joint Economic Committee Chair Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) asked Hall for historical context on the number of long-term unemployed.
“We're at easily record levels,” said Hall.
The number of long-term unemployed particularly concerning, Hall explained, because research has shown that the longer someone is unemployed, the longer it takes to help them find work.
He said the median number of weeks of unemployment also has doubled from five to 10 during the current recession.
“These numbers are clearly very concerning,” he said, and added that, in level and percent, “and almost any way you look at it,” they are at historic levels.
Hall told the committee that about 130,000 jobs need to be added to the economy every month just to absorb population growth, so it's important to look at the number of jobs added above 130,000 in order to assess the recovery.
In a review of major worker groups, unemployment was lowest for Asians (7.7 percent), but trended higher for whites (8.1 percent), Hispanics (11.3 percent) and black Americans (15.9 percent).
Unemployment for adult men was 9 percent, 7.9 percent for adult women and 25 percent for teenagers, the report said.
The July employment report showed that job gains occurred in health care, retail trade, manufacturing and mining, while government job numbers continued to drop, with a loss of 37,000 jobs.
The report showed that private sector job numbers in construction, transportation and warehousing, information, financial activities, and leisure and hospitality changed little over the month.
Main areas of job growth in July included health care, which added 31,000 jobs; retail trade, 26,000 jobs; and there were 24,000 jobs added in manufacturing – primarily in durable goods.
Persons unemployed for less than five weeks declined by 387,000 in July. People working part-time for economic reasons remained mostly unchanged at 8.4 million, while there were 2.8 million people marginally attached to the labor force, little changed from a year earlier, the agency said.
The Friday report also noted that among those marginally attached to the labor force, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers – those not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them – in July, about the same as a year earlier.
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