Back To Career News

Why the Lower Unemployment Rate Is Bad News

Topics: Current Events

The unemployment rate has declined to 5.3 percent this month, but no one’s planning a parade to celebrate. If you’ve been keeping up with news on the economy, that might sound crazy. After all, this is the lowest unemployment rate since April 2008, when the recession was first taking hold. Why aren’t we cheering in the streets?

unemployment line

(Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks/Flickr)

It makes more sense if we take a look at the full picture. We can’t just look at the unemployment rate. We must look also look at how many unemployed people are actively trying to get jobs, plus wage growth over time.

Do You Know What You're Worth?

Wages Haven’t Gone Up

Salaries have remained stagnant, so you probably didn’t get a raise recently, right? That’s because your boss wasn’t pressured to pay higher wages to attract new employees. While that might be considered great news from your boss’s point of view, it’s not a positive sign for the state of the economy and for your career outlook.

More Jobs? 

Comparatively, the number of new jobs has continued to decrease, dragging that 12-month average downward. The lower number, overall, is a cause for concern. It points to the fact that we still haven’t recovered completely from the recession, and it offers fodder for further concern – particularly with other factors (like the international debt crisis in Greece and the looming proposition of an interest-rate hike in September 2015). Yes, we’re seeing more new jobs (223,000), but it’s still a disappointing net gain.

Participation Rate Is Down

Last month’s labor force participation rate was the worst since 1977. While retirement can account for some of that discouraging drop to 62.6 percent, the rate for the 25-to-54 “prime” group also showed no signs of improvement, according to The New York Times. Many unemployed Americans may have ceased trying to find jobs. 

Ending on a positive note, we could say: it could definitely be worse. The unemployment rate could be soaring, along with all the other discouraging news! It’s become clear, though, that for some unemployed workers, the news has been discouraging enough. 

Tell Us What You Think

Are you still unemployed? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

Esther Lombardi
Read more from Esther

3
Leave a Reply

avatar
3 Comment threads
0 Thread replies
0 Followers
 
Most reacted comment
Hottest comment thread
1 Comment authors
JoePartev Barr SarkissianPriscilla Recent comment authors
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
Priscilla
Guest
Priscilla

Joe, an engineering degree? and an MBA? you deserve much more than 40k. Don’t let the HR reps’ evaluation define you. Corporations are so self-absorbed with cash and stock valuations they no longer know how to innovate, no longer see value in their own loyal employees, no longer can make realistic hiring decisions. It may be true that it’s who you know, period.
Best wishes for you, keep your chin up and never give up!

Joe
Guest
Joe

I am, employed but still seeing downward pressure on contract rates, and NO opportunities for full time. I also feel underemployed. One keeps hearing about how industry needs all of these people, but unless you have specific experience in a given job (not necessarily field), you won’t get hired. Companies seem to want drivers of business applications, not people who can think and learn. If you’ve built blue widgets on Friday, you couldn’t possibly be able to build red widgets… Read more »

Partev Barr Sarkissian
Guest
Partev Barr Sarkissian

Something that nobody talks about jobless figures,… is that once you’ve used up your unemployment benefits, you are no longer in the system. And you are still out of work, but worse, you are no longer counted as unemployed. No longer in the system = not a statistic, not counted. So the unemployment statisics are not good statistics,… it’s therefore bogus. A whole of people who should be counted and are not. Well, what did you expect from politicians from… Read more »

What Am I Worth?

What your skills are worth in the job market is constantly changing.