UNITED STATES—On August 4, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released the July jobs report which shows a slight increase of 187,000 jobs which raises the unemployment rate from 3.4 to 3.5 percent.
“This news release presents statistics from two monthly surveys. The household
survey measures labor force status, including unemployment, by demographic
characteristics. The establishment survey measures nonfarm employment, hours,
and earnings by industry. For more information about the concepts and statistical
methodology used in these two surveys, “see the Technical Note”, states a press release from the BLS.
With major worker groups including Asians, adult men, adult women, Blacks and Hispanics, showed little change.
Those on temporary layoffs increased from 175,000 to 667,000 in July. Individuals with permanent job loss, and who have been unemployed for longer than 27 weeks changed very little.
The largest change is between part-time employment unable to achieve full-time employment, and those with full-time employment unable to keep their status.
From July 2022 to July 2023 employed persons working part-time for economic reasons decreased from 3,925 in July 2022, 3,739 in May 2023, 4,191 in June 2023, and 4,000 in July 2023, a decrease of 191.
Slack work due to business conditions resulted in a decrease of 173. Those able to find part-time work are 66.
In both 2022 and 2023, reports indicate the largest increase in those trying to find full-time employment. In 2022, 4,879 could not find full-time employment.
The results from the latest report contradict the March 10, announcement President Joe Biden made stating:
“Hey, folks. Good morning. Sorry we’re late — a little late. It’s all my fault. But, look, I think we’ve got a good jobs report. I’m happy to report that our economy has created over 300,000 new jobs last month, and that’s on top of a half a million jobs we added the month before. All told, we’ve created more than 12 thousand [million] — 12 thousand [million] jobs since I took office, nearly 8,000 [800,000] of them manufacturing jobs.”
As of June 2023, the California unemployment rate under Governor Gavin Newsom rose to 4.6 percent with 889,000 Californians unemployed. As of July 29, 2023, there have been 443,000 unemployment insurance claims in the state.