The Workers in the Middle of the Numbers

The US Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics in its May 2024 News Release titled THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION — MAY 2024 reports the following:


  • Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 272,000 in May, and the unemployment rate changed little at 4.0 percent.


  • Both the labor force participation rate, at 62.5 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.1 percent, were little changed in May. These measures showed little change over the year. 


  • Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (3.4 percent), teenagers (12.3 percent), Whites (3.5 percent), Blacks (6.1 percent), Asians (3.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.0 percent) showed little or no change in May.


  • The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more), at 1.4 million, changed little in May. The long-term unemployed accounted for 20.7 percent of all unemployed people. 


  • In May, the number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job, at 5.7 million, was little changed. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.


  • The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, edged up to 462,000 over the month.


The US Chamber of Commerce in a June 2024 report titled “Understanding America’s Labor Shortage” reports that there are “8.5 million job openings in the U.S”. and that if “every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have millions of open jobs.”


Is there a way to let the chronically unemployed those aforementioned “discouraged workers,” know that there are jobs?  Does the thought of filing out one more application turn them off their job search? Or is it schedule flexibility they need?  




Let Aflashout be the solution.