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Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog US Unemployment Drops Below 6 Percent on Strong Job Gains Oct. 4, 2014 Terms of Use: These slides are provided under Creative Commons License Attribution—Share Alike 3.0 . You are free to use these slides as a resource for your economics classes together with whatever textbook you are using. If you like the slides, you may also want to take a look at my textbook, Introduction to Economics, from BVT Publishing.

Unemployment Rate Falls to New
Low of 5.9 Percent  The US unemployment rate fell to 5.9 percent in September, a new low for the recovery. It was the first time in six years that the rate fell below 6 percent.  The unemployment rate is the ratio of unemployed persons to the labor force. Both the numerator and the denominator fell during the month.  The unemployment rate is based on a monthly survey of households Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Broad vs. Standard Unemployment Rate
 The BLS also provides a broader measure of job-market stress, U-6  The numerator of U-6 includes  Unemployed persons  Marginally attached persons who would like to work but are not looking because they think there are no jobs, or for personal reasons  Part-time workers who would prefer full-time work but can’t find it  The denominator includes the labor force plus the marginally attached  U-6 fell to 11.8 percent in September, also a new low for the recovery Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Payroll Job Growth Resumes in
September  In addition to the employment numbers from the household survey, the BLS reports payroll jobs, based on a separate survey of employers  The economy added 248,000 payroll jobs in September, a little above the average for the year  July and August job gains were revised upward by a total of 69,000 Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Long-term Unemployment Shows Little Change
 The recession and slow recovery have been characterized by unusually high levels of long-term unemployment  The absolute number of people out of work for 27 weeks or more fell slightly in September, but the number of long-term unemployed rose as a percentage of all unemployed  The mean duration of unemployment fell for the month but the median duration rose Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

Involuntary Part-Time Work Falls 
The percentage of the labor force working part time for economic reasons (involuntary part-time work) decreased in September, following its general downward trend  Involuntary part-time work remains much higher than it was before the onset of the Great Recession Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

The Bottom Line: Prospects Look
Good for Q3  Strong job growth in September was consistent with other indicators of continued growth of the economy for the third quarter  The trajectory of the economy will become clearer at the end of October when government statisticians release the advance estimate of Q3 GDP Oct. 4, 2014 Ed Dolan’s Econ Blog

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