THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JANUARY 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000) and the unem-
ployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of
the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment has declined
by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007; about one-
half of this decline occurred in the past 3 months. In January, job losses
were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.
Unemployment (Household Survey Data)
Both the number of unemployed persons (11.6 million) and the unemployment
rate (7.6 percent) rose in January. Over the past 12 months, the number of un-
employed persons has increased by 4.1 million and the unemployment rate has
risen by 2.7 percentage points. The unemployment rate continued to trend upward in January for adult men
(7.6 percent), adult women (6.2 percent), whites (6.9 percent), blacks (12.6
percent), and Hispanics (9.7 percent). The jobless rate for teenagers was un-
changed at 20.8 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.2 percent in
January, not seasonally adjusted. Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed
temporary jobs increased to 7.0 million in January. This measure has grown
by 3.2 million during the last 12 months. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more)
was little changed at 2.6 million in January. Over the past 12 months, the
number of long-term unemployed was up by 1.3 million. The number of persons
unemployed less than 5 weeks rose to 3.7 million in January. Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
The civilian labor force participation rate, at 65.5 percent in January, has
edged down in recent months. The employment-population ratio declined by 0.5
percentage point to 60.5 percent over the month, and by 2.4 percentage points
over the year.
The number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons (sometimes
referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged in
January at 7.8 million; however, this measure was up by 3.1 million over the
past 12 months. Included in this category are persons who would like to work
full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or
because they were unable to find full-time jobs.
Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)
About 2.1 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally attached
to the labor force in January, about 400,000 more than 12 months earlier. These
individuals 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. Among the marginally at-
tached, there were 734,000 discouraged workers in January, up by about 270,000
from a year earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for
work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.4 million
persons marginally attached to the labor force in January had not searched for
work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance
or family responsibilities.
