November’s Solid Employment Numbers
The United States continues to enjoy robust expansion. Arguably the strongest in decades. The big winner can be found in the latest Department of Labor job numbers for November and seen in the country’s households.
In November, the unemployment rate was 3.7 percent for the third month in a row, and the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 6.0 million. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons declined by 0.4 percentage point and 641,000, respectively. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.3 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (12.0 percent), Whites (3.4 percent), Blacks (5.9 percent), Asians (2.7 percent), and Hispanics (4.5 percent) showed little or no change in November. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) declined by 120,000 to 1.3 million in November. These individuals accounted for 20.8 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.)
Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.9 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.6 percent, were unchanged in November. (See table A-1.)
The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers), at 4.8 million, changed little in November. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs. (See table A-8.)
In November, 1.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, an increase of 197,000 from a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)
Among the marginally attached, there were 453,000 discouraged workers in November, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (Data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.2 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in November had not searched for work for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See table A-16.)
You can see all the data — including links to the tables — here.
Senior House Republican, Kevin Brady, weighed in on this important report. Brady (R-TX) is Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and an architect of the tax reform package that many attribute as a significant contribution to the current job numbers. He noted, “This is a solid report as we head into the holiday season, highlighting a year of growth for our country. Wages are rising at their fastest pace in a decade for our workers and nearly 2.3 million jobs have been created this year alone – the Republican pro-growth agenda is making a real impact for families and individuals across the country. America’s workers need us to continue building on this success, and we hope House Democrats begin to join us in moving policies that allow our Main Street businesses to compete and win.”