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Article Artículo

Economic Growth

Inequality

Workers

What Does the Recovery Really Look Like?

In October of 2009, the national unemployment rate peaked at 10 percent; as of December 2016, it was down to 4.7 percent. The Federal Reserve Board voted last month to raise interest rates in part due to this low rate, and the decrease in unemployment has generally been hailed as a sign of recovery. But how accurately do those numbers reflect the current employment situation for most workers? This post looks at prime-age employment rates for several different demographic groups to create a clearer picture of how the recession and recovery affected American workers.

The unemployment rate only includes workers who have been actively seeking jobs during the last four weeks. However, due to the severity and duration of the most recent recession, many prospective workers simply gave up looking and were not counted in the unemployment rate. To account for these “missing workers”, this post analyzes the employment rate instead of the unemployment rate. By using the prime-age employment rate – the employment rate for workers ages 25 to 54 – it avoids any bias attributable to the aging of the population.

CEPR, Nicolas Buffie and Sarah Rawlins / January 26, 2017

Article Artículo

People are Choosing to Work Part-Time, Why Is that So Hard for Economic Reporters to Understand?

It is really amazing how major news outlets can't seem to find reporters who understand the most basic things about the economy. I guess this is evidence of the skills shortage.

Bloomberg takes the hit today in a piece discussing areas where the economy is likely to make progress in a Trump administration and areas where it is not. In a middle "muddle through" category, we find "Full-Time Work Is Likely to Stay Elusive for Part-Timers." The story is:

"Trump has highlighted the number of part-time workers in the U.S. economy, saying 'far too many people' are working in positions for which they are overqualified and underpaid. While the proportion of full-time workers in the labor force remains below its pre-recession high, it’s made up most of the ground lost during the downturn. But it hasn’t budged much in the last two years, even as the job market has gotten tighter. Some economists point to the gig economy as the driving force (pun intended) behind part-timers. Others see a broader shift in the labor market that’s left many workers stuck with shorter hours, lower wages and weaker benefits."

Okay, wrong, wrong, and wrong. In its monthly employment survey (the Current Population Survey [CPS]), the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks people whether they are working more or less than 35 hours a week. If they are working less than 35 hours they are classified as part-time. The survey then asks the people who are working part-time why they are working part-time. It divides these workers into two categories, people who work part-time for economic reasons (i.e. they could not find full-time jobs) and people who work part-time for non-economic reasons. In other words, the second group has chosen to work part-time. 

If we look at the numbers for involuntary part-time workers, it dropped from 6.8 million in December of 2014 to 5.6 million in December of 2016. That is a drop of 1.2 million, or almost 18 percent. That would not seem to fit the description of not budging much. Of course, Bloomberg may have been adding in the number of people who chose to work part-time, which grew by 1.4 million over this two year period, leaving little net change in total part-time employment.

CEPR / January 20, 2017