Job Loss Slows, Unemployment 9.7%, Workers Still Discouraged

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report on the “employment situation” around the country on Friday — an additional 216,000 jobs were eliminated during August and the unemployment rate rose slightly to 9.7%.

Though the losses continued, they were slower than in previous months, when the unemployment rate increased by an average of a half percentage point each month between December and May.  The numbers are beginning to level off, if not improve, but counting the unemployed doesn’t tell the whole story.

When you take into account three additional classes of workers tracked by the BLS, a fuller picture emerges of what it means to be unemployed in the United States.

During August 9.1 million people (about the same as in July) were working part-time for economic reasons, i.e. they found part-time work after losing full-time jobs.

Another 2.3 million people were considered “marginally attached” to the labor force — these individuals are not working, have been looking for work during the past year, but not during the past four weeks, so they are not included in unemployment numbers.

Then there are the discouraged workers. These are people who are out of work but not looking because they feel there are no available jobs. The number of these discouraged workers has doubled over the past year and is now 758,000.

These categories of workers — the part timers, the marginally attached, the discouraged — reminded me of a conversation I had last week with a friend from college that left me feeling that millions of workers aren’t reflected in the monthly joblessness reports.

My friend is 30, her husband is 33, and they’re living in Columbus, Ohio. They’re both well educated and thought by now they’d be where they needed to be financially — but they’re not.

She works in a declining industry (journalism!) he worked in real estate. Since the economy collapsed his commissions have dwindled to all but nothing. He still goes to work everyday but there’s no money coming in. They’ve downsized to a smaller apartment further outside the city. He’s taken a job at a shoe store in the mall after getting dinged by multiple Starbucks. As their checking account edges closer to zero, they’re both shocked that this is the situation they’re in a decade out of college. Starting a family seems unattainable and out of reach.

Yet he’s not eligible for unemployment — theoretically a commission could come in at any time. And he’s not included in the unemployment statistics.

It’s left me wondering:  how many people are there in the exact same situation?