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Unemployment in USA in February 2014

The unemployment rate in the U.S in February 2014 stood at 6.7%. The total number of the unemployed persons totaled 10,459,000. In February, the number of all unemployed persons remained at approximately 10.5 million, and the unemployment rate was exactly 6.7 percent. Measures of survey have shown little movement in the unemployment rate since December 2013, and in the whole month of February 2014. The inflation rate in the U.S was recorded at 1.10 percent in the whole of February of 2014 (Swartz pg 57). This Inflation Rate record was reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Inflation comes as the causative agent of unemployment, the most prevailing of them all.

Over the month of February 2014, the entire number of the unemployed persons as well as the unemployment rate went down by about 1.2 million and 0.8 percentages, respectively. Among the main worker groups, the rate of unemployment for all adult women increased to about 6.2 percent in February, and the rate for the adult men decreased to the rate of 6.2 percent. The rates for teenagers stood at 20.9 percent, the whites (5.8 percent), the blacks (12.4 percent), and the Hispanics (7.9 percent) which showed little change. The jobless rate for the Asians was about 5.4 percent, little changed from about a year earlier (“BLS”, 2014).

Although it is sometimes overlooked, a key statistic for the understanding unemployment in the USA is the length of an average workweek. Some small changes in the average workweek usually imply large changes in the total hours worked. In the U.S., the average work week has fallen to 34.2 hours in February from 34.5 hours around September 2013, as per the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Sparshott pg 77). The decline, together with the mediocre job creation, shows that the total number of employment hours has decreased over the period.

The number of long-term unemployed, which stands at 3.6 million, declined by 232,000 in the month of February. The individuals accounted for about 35.8 percent of the total unemployed. The number of the long-term unemployed persons declined by 1.1 million. Once again, exists more new jobs and so the unemployment rate fell. However, the low unemployment rate is somehow misleading (Swartz pg 59).  This is because there are 91,455,000 people no longer in the US labor force.  The BLS does not count the unemployed people as unemployed in calculations of the official unemployment rate.  If that was done, it would raise the unemployment rate to 13.6%.  This is a lot higher than the provisional and official 6.6%. 

A large percentage of all the unemployed persons are not suffering from the frictional unemployment-That brief period of temporary unemployment between jobs.  The people have permanently lost their jobs and cannot find new ones. Others can only find part-time jobs (“BLS”, 2014).

The number of people employed part time for US economic reasons (which is sometimes referred to as the involuntary part-time workers) reduced by 514,000 to 7.3 million. The individuals worked part time as their hours had been reduced or because they were not able to find any full-time work (Sparshott pg 75).

On average the rate of unemployment rate for white/black men, the women as well as 16-19 year olds was 4.2%/9.3%, 4.0%/8.2% and 14.7%/31.1%, respectively the previous month.  In February, the numbers jumped to 7.8%/15.7%, 6.7%/12.2% and 21.8%/40.3%.  This should be taken seriously and give the American authorities a sense of concern.   This is because in February, the gap between the black and the white unemployment grew wider and greater.  The gap between the black and the white men rose from 5.1 to 7.9.  This was an increase of 55.6%.  Additionally, the gap between the black and white women rose from 4.2 to 5.5.  This was also an increase of 32.9%.  The gap between the black and white 16 to 19 year olds rose from 16.5 to 18.5, registering an increase of 12.7% (“BLS” 2014). 

There is a division between female and male labor forces and it can be referred to as Occupational Gender Segregation. This relates to the reality that men and women do different jobs, based on understandings of what is the proper female and male work. According to Lazeart (2014), occupational gender segregation is sometimes vertical, whereby a woman concentrates on less influential jobs. The unemployment rate for the adult men has fallen sharply from the previous month. The trend is due to stronger hiring of men in workplaces, and also a more discouraging development. In this case, men are constantly dropping out of the labor force in surprising high numbers. The unemployment rate for all adult women never got as high as that for men. However, it has not fallen much either. Like men, the women were leaving the labor force in great numbers since January. Women’s participation rates also appeared to stabilize in a way, in February.

Despite the existent of some substantial volatility, U.S job creation has reached an average of 180k over the last 12 months which is slightly lower than the last 18 months average of approximately 191k. The private sector employment rate has increased for the 49th straight month, thus totaling to 8.681 million or about 177k per month. However, this has not lowered the rate of unemployment. This is because there are many potential employees clearing training institutions every other month (Sparshott pg 73). The government sector has been surprised by the upside creating 13k jobs, which are modestly higher than the last 3 month average of -14k. It seems that the trend of job creation rate is still approximately 175k to 185k per month, which is consistent with an economy that is growing at around 2%.

For the anticipation that preceded unemployment report In February, many job seekers’ reaction was muted. On the economic growth and securities market, the industrial average edged up by about 30.83 points or 0.19 percent, thus closing at 16,452.72. For instance, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index grew by 1.01 points or a percentage margin of 0.05, closing at 1,878.04. The age when an individually cleared school and the level of education determines whether a person gets employed. Workers are classified into three educational groups, those who graduated at 16 or under, between 17 to 20, and more than 21 years of age.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the USA labor market is not fair to the moat of the parties involved. There is a need to impose rules on equality, such as balancing the number of women and men in the market. This will go a long way in ensuring that no gender is considered weak. The Identity of workers should not be used to define the work they do, whether migrants or locals.

Work Cited

Bureau of Labor Statistics “BLS”. Unemployment in United States in February 2014. Web

Edward, P. Lazeart . “The Hidden Rot in the Job numbers”. Wall Street Journal, 2014. Web

Nelson, D. Swartz. “As Job Creation increases in February”. The New York Times, 2014. Web.Jeffrey, Sparshott. “Economists react hits of spring”. The wall Street journal, 2014. WebTrading Economics. United States Unemployment Rate. Retrieved from

www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/unemployment-rate.

“Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey”. Bureau of Labor Statistics.February 2014.