2013 United States Career Guide

Cedar Education Lending constructed this great inforgraphic with a lot of information about the current job market in the United States. Among other things, jobs with the best and the worst employment possibilities and highest and lowest ranking careers are described.

Lifehacker

Unemployment Rate During Last Six Presidencies

The Wall Street Journal constructed this great overview of the unemployment rate under the last six presidents. After a big increase in the unemployment rate under Reagan, unemployment hit a record high of 11 percent, a structural decline set in. Despite cyclical increases, the unemployment rate decreased to 4-5 percent under Clinton and again under George W. Bush. Will the percentage of people of the job force without a job go to around 5 percent again?

Twitter

Did the U.S. Job Market improve?

The U.S. job figures are presented in this graph. The unemployment finally edged under the famous 8 percent. Yet the participation rate (job force/potential job force) remained at a remarkable low rate and the average unemployment duration also still stayed at historically high levels.

(Update: today new figures were released. The jobless rate remained under the 8 percent: 7,9 percent.)

Reuters

Total Jobs: United States Vs. Euro Zone

As you can see in this graph, before the Great Recession the total nominal employment was higher in the United States than in the Euro Zone. During the Great Recession U.S. employment declined more than twice the number of the Euro Zone. Unlike the U.S., the Euro Zone has not seen a recovery in the number of jobs. Since late 2011 the number of jobs are even declining again in the Euro Zone.

Zero Hedge

Why the U.S. Job Market Did Not Recover

This graph shows the employment to population ratio. In other words it shows the percentage of the population the is working. In collapsed during the crisis and didn't recover at all yet.

FED

Percent U.S. Job Losses Great Recession Compared to the Depression

In this post from April last year I already showed the great graph Calculated Risk blog makes each time new (un)employment figures for the United States are released. The current job market crisis is compared to those after the other recessions after WWII for the percent of job losses. Unfortunately there was no data available for the Great Depression. Although not a as detailed as the other graph Calculated Risk was recently able to construct a graph comparing the current crisis with the Depression. It is not as detailed because only yearly estimates are available for the depression. You can see that the current recession is by far not as severe as the Great Depression.

Calculated Risk

United States Initial Jobless Claims

U can debate whether the U.S. labor market - with the unemployment rate declining in recent months - is really improving. Especially if you look at decreasing participation of the labor force and the still very high average duration of unemployment the actual improvement is questionable. The growth of new unemployed is getting lower and lower though. With the initial jobless claims on a four year low. At least one sign that is really improving of the labor market.

Why The U.S. Participation Rate Is Declining, Besides The Crisis

The participation rate is the ratio of the population over 15 that either works or is actively looking for work. The participation rate decreased sharply during the crises.

According to the Congressional Budget Office there are several (structural) reasons which led to a decrease in the labor force participation rate in the United States, besides the economic crisis.

1. Long term trend for people between 16-24 to study more and work less while studying.  
2. The Baby boom elderly population starts to retire. 
3. In november most of the drop in the participation rate was driven by unmarried woman. The share of woman who chose to work fell to its lowest level in 20 years.

Ofcourse these causes may well be strengthened by the economic crisis and its important not to forget the United States unemployment is still at a record high. Although lower than the unemployment of the European Union.

Washington Post

US Average Duration Of Unemployment Exploded

Reuters made a graph of the average number of weeks workers are unemployed in the United States. As you can see this is higher than any after war period. Unfortunately the depression in the thirties is not pictured.

Obama's Jobs Plan Graphed

Reuters recently published this graph which explains a great deal what the American Jobs Act is about.

To sum up the 447 billion dollars will be spent on the following:

• 175 billion for cutting employee payroll taxes in half in 2012.
• 70 billion for cutting and extending employer payroll taxes.
• 140 billion for infrastructure and teacher rehiring.
• 62 billion for pathways back to work for Americans looking for jobs.

Last Sunday Obama announced how he wants to pay for the employment stimulus. His plan is to raise taxes for high earning individuals as well as for corporations. According to The Telegraph there is little change of the Jobs Act passing into law, because the Republicans will be highly opposed to tax increases.

Reuters

Housing: Major Cause Of Unemployment In The United States

The first chart shows that some sectors have a lot higher unemployment than other in the United States. This especially holds true for the sector with Construction which has the highest unemployment in the country. In the Management sector the relative increase in unemployment has been quite a bit lower.

This chart from Wells Fargo compares jobless rates for regions in California. In parts of California hit hard by the housing crisis like Riverside and Sacramento, the unemployment rate is notably higher than in the other parts.

Business Insider