Preliminary April labor force data counts for San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties puts the unemployment rate at 9.6%, 8.3% and 9.2% respectively, down 0.7 percentage points in San Francisco, 0.5 percentage points in Marin, and 0.6 percentage points in San Mateo.
On a revised basis, the number of unemployed in San Francisco fell by 3,500 (from 4,700 to 43,500) in April and the number of employed increased by 700 (from 410,700 to 411,400) as the labor force decreased by 2,800 (from 457,700 to 454,900).
Overall California unemployment fell by 0.7 percentage points to 12.3% as the labor force fell by 59,900 and employment increased by 83,500.
∙ Monthly Labor Force Data for Counties: April 2010 (Preliminary) [EDD]
∙ San Francisco County Unemployment To 9.9 Percent In February [SocketSite]
this may be obvious, but how does the unemployment get better when the labor force is shrinking?
i know some people stop looking and aren’t counted, but is there something else i am missing. what happens to those people no longer counted as part of labor force?
^
Soylent Green is made out of people! PEOPLE!!
this may be obvious, but how does the unemployment get better when the labor force is shrinking?
because unemployment as discussed in news headlines is “U3” unemployment. If you stop looking for work then you are no longer unemployed by the U3 definition.
this is why some people use U6 instead of U3.
U6 accounts for all U3 unemployment plus
-Discouraged workers
-Marginally attached workers
-Part-time workers who would prefer full-time employment
FWIW: I’m not sure what U6 did the last month, I don’t tend to follow it closely although I like it better than U3.
Shadowstats is a good place to watch U6 vs. U-3:
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
U3 definitely drops people out of the count who should be in the count.
Two interesting items from the report:
“Five categories…added jobs over the month
…[g]overnment posted the largest increase over the month, adding 14,000 jobs.”
and
“Two industry divisions, information, and educational and health services, posted job
gains over the year, adding 37,300 jobs. Educational and health services recorded the
largest increase over the year on both a numerical and percentage basis, up 32,100
jobs (a 1.9 percent increase).”
Growth in government and its proxies (health & ed) is the opposite of encouraging.
Should be noted that the April numbers are preliminary.
Last, credit should be given to the EDD — they do an excellent job of economic reporting.
every time this report comes out I wonder what the ~600,000 unemployed people in L.A. are doing right now.