Geographic Map and It’s Meaning for Every American this Holiday Season
I am typically a pretty optimistic person, and remain so. BUT, as we enter a season of holidays, I find the mood of the season dampened but not defeated by the harsh challenges confronting so many Americans. There are just a bunch of people who need work, want work, can work, but cannot get a job. A colleague shared with me today an interactive map that paints a fairly clear picture of the geographic scale associated with the loss of jobs and implications associated with the recession. In a prior blog entry, we defined “jobless recovery.” The current unemployment situation is pretty disturbing particularly if you find yourself without employment, or if you care about those who are. There are two aspects that are most troubling to me — (1) people are facing severe challenges in making ends meet and providing for their loved ones and (2) in the land of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, a growing number of persons have given up hope in looking for a job. According to federal data released by the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, these folks are discouraged — a nice way of saying depressed, down and out, victims of a defeat not their own doing.
The realities associated with these trends were brought to me in a new light when I viewed the map below. Take a look. To reference and old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words. Now, remember the graphics represent a pretty narrow timeframe — only a two-year period. Please take a moment a to think about all those people and families connected to the dots on the map. Let us each spend a part of the holiday and a good piece of the New Year supporting federal efforts and doing something ourselves to help those in need.
[The Geography of a Recession Map - Click Here]
Map provided by Latoya Egwuekwe
-Anita Estell
The People’s Place | The Anita Estell Blog
Most recent upate from the Department of Labor
The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade.
Household Survey Data
In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 5.3 percentage points.
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.7 percent) and whites (9.5 percent) rose in October. The jobless rates for adult women (8.1 percent), teenagers (27.6 percent), blacks (15.7 percent), and
Hispanics (13.1 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed over the month at 5.6 million. In October, 35.6 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.
The civilian labor force participation rate was little changed over the month at 65.1 percent. The employment-population ratio continued to decline in October, falling to 58.5 percent.
Let’s look at more of the numbers. My heart is heavy going into this holiday season knowing the number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in October at 9.3 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in October, reflecting an increase of 736,000 from a year earlier. (The 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.
Among the marginally attached, there were 808,000 discouraged workers in October, up from 484,000 a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other 1.6 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in October had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.
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