The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a great deal to say about the November 2011 unemployment numbers and the October numbers from the metro areas. The unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent from 9 percent in November. In October, the unemployment rates fell in 281 of the 372 metro areas the BLS watches.

The pictures tell a far more discouraging tale. These graphs are from the BLS site, using their data. None of the graphs present any sort of encouraging picture for those who are unemployed or those who have given up. And, lots of folks have just given up.

The graphs were built to show both the current record or near record “bad” numbers as well as their opposites from the Clinton and Bush Administrations. Fewer people are working and more people have dropped out of the labor force. That is the tale of November 2011.

The slideshow illustrates the unemployment data for each July for the last decade, 2002 to 2011.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has kept data on unemployment among American blacks since 1972. The record high rate of unemployment was in June 1983, 20.7%. The record low was in April 2000 at 7%. For June 2011 the black unemployment rate is 16.2%.

The last thirty years have seen four peaks for black unemployment and three troughs.

High %	High Date	Low %	Low Date
20.7%	June 1983	10.5%	June 1990
14.7%	May 1992	7.0%	April 2000
11.5%	June 2003	7.7%	August 2007

The highest rate of black unemployment in the Obama era was 16.5% in March and April 2010. It has now been fourteen months since that peak. Black unemployment has dropped to 16.2%.

In comparison, after the first peak in the table, black unemployment had dropped from 20.7% to 16% in fourteen months. After the second peak it went from 14.7% to 12.7%. The fourteen months after the third peak saw black unemployment go from 11.5% to 10.5%.

The last Census report on poverty in America was released in September 2010 for the year 2009. Black poverty was up from its record low rate in 2000 of 22.5%. In 2009 just over one in four American blacks lived in poverty. For blacks living in a household headed by a woman, 40% lived in poverty.

Over the last generation, reductions in black unemployment have become increasingly more difficult to achieve. Even the record low rate set in 2000 was the highest of any minority and came during the one of the greatest economic upturns since World War Two. In the midst of an economic boom, seven percent of blacks remained unemployed.

Black unemployment, like black poverty, contains a core group that may not be reachable by economics and the free market as we know it. This hardcore cluster of poor blacks was created by social dynamics and governmental policies that may have created a permanently disenfranchised class lacking the ability to change their own condition.

	January 2009	June 2010	Change
Employed	142,221,000	139,119,000	-3,102,000	LOSS
Total Unemployed	12,653,000	15,830,000	3,177,000	INCREASE
Unemployed	11,919,000	14,623,000	2,704,000	INCREASE
Discouraged	734,000	1,207,000	473,000	INCREASE
True unemployment rate	8.90%	11.38%		INCREASE
Participation rate	65.70%	64.70%	-1.00%	DROP
Employment/Population ratio	60.60%	58.50%	-2.10%	DROP

The White House and its allies have been touting the claims contained in the Council of Economic Advisers’ latest quarterly report that

the Recovery Act is already responsible for 2.5 to 3.6 million – or about 3 million – jobs

The table above was created using the data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are the government’s own numbers, used by their agencies and a wide variety of private businesses for planning and decision making.

The number of Americans employed has decreased by over 3.1 million since the Obama administration took office. True unemployment, the total unemployed and the total discouraged from looking for work, has increased over the same time frame by nearly 3.2 million Americans.

True unemployment includes those unemployed and looking for work and those no longer looking, the discouraged. The true unemployment rate on January 31, 2009 was 8.9%. As of June 30, 2010 it was 11.38%.

When the Obama Administration took office, 65.7% of the population participated in the work force. That rate is now 64.7%. In January 2009, 60.6% of the population was working and that rate is now 58.5%.

For the White House claims to be correct, either the BLS data is wrong, or the Recovery Act prevented unemployment from reaching a level of 6 million Americans. The data clearly demonstrates that about 3 million fewer Americans are no longer working.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has this to say about the employment / unemployment situation in June 2010:

In June, about 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, an increase of 415,000 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 1.2 million discouraged workers in June, up by 414,000 from 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 remaining 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Click on the graph for a larger image.

GRAPH ONE:

This graph shows the combination of people unemployed and those listed as discouraged from January 2008 through June 2010. This is the “true” unemployment rate since discouraged workers are no longer counted by the BLS as unemployed. Discouraged workers are no longer looking for work.

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GRAPH TWO:

This line graph shows the total “true” unemployment from January 2008 through June 2010 along with a line representing the trend for the period.

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GRAPH THREE:

Graph three shows the same data as graph two, only in the period January 2009 through June 2010, President Obama’s current tenure. The trend line for the period is also shown.

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GRAPH FOUR:

The last twelve months are shown on this graph of the “true” unemployment in the United States, with a trend line.

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GRAPH FIVE:

This graph shows the “true” unemployment in the United States for the year 2010. The trend line appears flat, suggesting that unemployment may not change in the next several months.

Unemployment represents the people without jobs who are looking for work. “True” unemployment adds those people who have given up looking and are not employed – hence the term “discouraged”.

The number of discouraged workers is at its highest level since the category began being tracked in 1994. Here is a graph from the BLS website illustrating the situation.

Record numbers of people no longer looking for work and not included in the unemployment figures touted by the Administration represents a serious economic issue, as well as a political one.