Economic Critique

Economic Critique

In today's current economy, it is important for us to better understand what the state of the unemployment rate is in, and how this economic factor involves everyone! To better understand the unemployment rate and how it affects our economy, no better place to start, then the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) within the U.S. Department of Labor. The definition for being unemployed is, "Any person 16 years and older, who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during a 4 week period ending with the referenced week and people waiting to be recalled to a job, from which they were laid off, and are not looking for work, are not classified as unemployed" according to the BLS. (U.S. Department of Labor, 2012)

Unemployment Factor

Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual

2003 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.3 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.8 5.7

2004 5.7 5.6 5.8 5.6 5.6 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.5 5.4 5.4

2005 5.3 5.4 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.9 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9

2006 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.6 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4

2007 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.5 4.4 4.6 4.7 4.6 4.7 4.7 4.7 5.0

2008 5.0 4.9 5.1 5.0 5.4 5.6 5.8 6.1 6.1 6.5 6.8 7.3

2009 7.8 8.3 8.7 9.0 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.6 9.8 10.0 9.9 9.9

2010 9.8 9.8 9.9 9.9 9.6 9.4 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.5 9.8 9.3

2011 9.1 9.0 8.9 9.0 9.0 9.1 9.0 9.0 9.0 8.9 8.6 8.5

2012 8.3 8.3 8.2 8.1 8.2 8.2 8.2 8.1 7.8 7.9 7.8 7.8

2013 7.9

Based on the calculations from the graph and chart above from the BLS, as of December 2012, 12.2 million people are unemployed in the U.S. and this rate is holding steady at 7.8%, and has leveled off since September 2012. (U.S. Department of Labor) This is based on the recessive state of our economy is having, due to jobs being scarce, in which the government is trying to improve, by implementing stimulus to the economy, in order to create more jobs.

The future of the unemployment rate looks grim at above 7% for 2013, but is predicted to drop at 6.5% for 2014, and will level out in the future to above 5.7%, according to the Cleveland Federal Reserve. (Amedeo, 2013) The current recession our economy is in today, is the reason our unemployment rate is at an all-time high, and with this being a long-term problem it does not have a short-term fix!

Essentially, this means that people with certain job skills, that are unemployed,