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Ugh! Today’s jobs report was ugly. Hideous.

The nation’s unemployment rate is now up to 10.2% which is the highest in 26 years. Even though the economy may be growing, we’re not creating jobs. Here are some stats to consider. Over the past two years, the number of unemployed has jumped by 8.4 million to 15.7 million. The number of employed has dropped by 7.6 million and only 0.8 million have joined the workforce. Add the two together and you get the 8.4 million increase in unemployment.

However, that 0.8 million increase in the workforce is puny. During the same time, the civilian population grew by 3.8 million, meaning only about one-fifth of the increase joined the jobs market compared with the historical average of three-fifths.

The ratio of employed to the population is now 58.45%. Nine years ago, it was 64.24%. If we had the same rate today, over 13.6 million more people would be employed.

Posted by edelfenbein at November 6, 2009 9:25 AM