We've probably all heard about that half a million newly unemployed US workers in Nov 08. That brought the unemployment rate in the US to 6.7%. Unfortunately, that's probably understating the number of jobless people in the US.
"Unemployed" is defined by the US Dept of Labour as
Fortunately for me I guess, the unemployment rate for Asians (at 4.8% in Nov) is the lowest amongst the groups listed. Only white women over 20 have found more employment than Asians. Although white men over 20 were pretty close too.
The good news is it looks like the most affected are the young and the not so highly educated. Which probably means that they still have time to get older and get a better education. The bad news is, I'm no longer considered young. But at least I'm considered educated. Hah.
All the numbers can be found at the US Dept of Labour website.
More information can be found in this Business Week article.
"Unemployed" is defined by the US Dept of Labour as
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.So this means that anyone who has gone jobless for more than a month will disappear from this count.
Fortunately for me I guess, the unemployment rate for Asians (at 4.8% in Nov) is the lowest amongst the groups listed. Only white women over 20 have found more employment than Asians. Although white men over 20 were pretty close too.
The good news is it looks like the most affected are the young and the not so highly educated. Which probably means that they still have time to get older and get a better education. The bad news is, I'm no longer considered young. But at least I'm considered educated. Hah.
All the numbers can be found at the US Dept of Labour website.
More information can be found in this Business Week article.
1 comment:
Actually, the key is "actively looking work work", meaning that if you became jobless > 1 mth ago, but are still going for interviews etc, you are still considered unemployed.
As for white women, the % is probably skewed because housewives aren't classified as either working or unemployed. Let working = W, unemployed = U, then %(U) = U/(U+W). Now, assume that X% of all women who are jobless and unable to find a job become housewives, where X>Y which is the % for men. Then %(U,F) = (1-X)U/[(1-X)U+W] < (1-X)U/[(1-X)(U+W)] = U/(U+W). Analogously, %(U,M) = (1-Y)U/[(1-Y)U+W] = [(1-X)U+(X-Y)U]/[(1-X)U+W+(X-Y)U] > (1-X)U/[(1-X)U+W] = %(U,F), since X-Y & U are both >0.
[Recall for a proper fraction A/B: (A+a)/(B+a) = (A-B)/(B+a) + 1. Since A/B = (A-B)/B + 1, where (A-B)<0, hence (A+a)/(B+a) = (A-B)/(B+a) + 1 > (A-B)/B + 1 = A/B]
Post a Comment