May Unemployment by State

On Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released May 2008 unemployment statistics by states. About a month ago, I posted the April figures. In April, California, Michigan, Rhode Island, Alaska, and Washington D.C. had the highest levels of unemployment. Between April and May, Rhode Island experienced the highest gains in unemployment and now sits with a 7.2% unemployment rate, and Alaska had the second-highest unemployment rate at 7.0%. In contrast, Oklahoma continued to enjoy declines in unemployment and now has a 3.5% unemployment rate, down from 4.5% in April.

And still a long way to go, baby

Although occupational segregation by gender has declined in recent years, a persistent area where women continue to be under-represented is in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) occupations. Women make up 46 percent of the labor force and 56 percent of all professional occupations, but only 30 percent of “computer and mathematical” occupations and 13 percent of “architecture and engineering” occupations. In contrast, women make up 80% of health technologists and technicians and 75 % of workers in office and administrative support occupations (2000 Census).

Unemployment

In a previous post, I reported that the large metropolitan areas with the lowest levels of unemployment in March were New Orleans, Washington D.C., Oklahoma City, Austin, Birmingham, and Phoenix. In April, the order of these 6 cities changed, but they are still the top six. Oklahoma City was the city with the lowest unemployment rate (2.9). Overall, however, the unemployment situation is less than ideal. Of 369 metropolitan areas in the United States, the unemployment rate was higher than a year ago in 261. These unemployment figures, combined with high gas prices, and dropping housing values, may help to explain why consumer confidence is at a 16 year low.

Perhaps nowhere (in the metropolitan United States) has experienced a worse year than Detroit. Detroit had the highest unemployment rate in April, but things look a little bit better than March when the unemployment rate was 7.7. In April Detroit’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent. Even so, it’s tough times for auto workers.

Maybe Detroit will be consoled tomorrow if the Red Wings win the Stanley Cup.

Unemployment Trends

According to a report released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate in April was 5.0%, up from 4.5 a year ago, but little changed from last month’s rate of 5.1%. Generally these findings were better news than what was expected, but it’s still the case that employment in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade decreased. This is a very short-term view of labor force change, which might be helpful in determining how long and deep our current recession will be, but monthly shifts can also be over-interpreted.

Taking a longer-term view, we can clearly see that among those age 25 and older, unemployment rates are much higher for those with less education. April 2006 to April 2008 unemployment rates grew 13% for those with less than a high school degree, but actually declined slightly (4.5%) for those with a Bachelor’s degree. Of course, you get different trends if you compare across different time periods, yet a consistency across time is that unemployment rates are less volatile for the more educated.

Tune back tomorrow for a post on Health and Aging.

Family Life

A long-term trend in family life has been the increase in the labor force participation of mothers. Given these changes in behavior, it isn’t surprising that most people disagree with the statement that “Family life suffers when mothers work full-time.” Yet in recent years, there has been a notable increase in the proportion agreeing with this statement among both men (solid lines) and women (dashed lines). Source: General Social Survey.














Recently many have tried to link concerns about the growing obesity problem with growth in mother's employment. Of course, we all know that correlation isn't causation. Also, I think some people forget that many more two-parent families would be in poverty if mother’s didn’t work.

Monday we'll post a comment on North Carolina demographics and exactly how bad this Rev. Wright affair would have to be to lead to an Obama loss in that state.

Weekly Earnings

Economic news of late has generally not been good, particularly in real estate. A new release by the Bureau of Labor statistics indicates that average weekly earnings in March 2008 was $607.49, up 4.3% from a year ago. Unfortunately inflation ate up much of that gain and the increase in earnings adjusted for the consumer price index was only .3%. A careful look at the report reveals that the increase in earnings was largely located in the Natural Resources and Mining Industry. The gains in those industries were offset by declines in Retail Trade.















Tune back in tomorrow for a profile of the people in poverty.

Poverty and Inequality

Many of the poor in the United States (33%) are employed. How do the poor get to work and how does their mode of transportation differ from the non poor?

Unemployment

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the unemployment rate last month was 5.1%,1 up from 4.4 a year ago.
States with highest and lowest unemployment rates:












Large metropolitan areas with highest and lowest unemployment rates:










1 Note that, to be unemployed, a person has to look for a job, so unemployment is not the same as non-employment.