That's the overall rate of unemployment, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' newly released U-6 measure
which includes "marginally attached workers" as well as those who work
part-time for economic reasons. That's quite a bit higher than the widely
reported 9.4 percent figure also released today.
And, unemployment continues to fall unevenly by gender, race, class, and occupation.
Race: The unemployment rate for whites was 8.6 percent compared to 12.7 percent for Hispanics, 14.9 percent for blacks, and 16.8 percent for black men.
Gender: Men continue to experience higher rates
of unemployment than women, with the gap widening to three full
percentage points - 10.5 percent vs. 7.5 percent (for those over 16
years of age) - due to
the concentration of men in manufacturing jobs.
Human Capital/Education: Unemployment is even more uneven by education or human capital level. The unemployment rate for college graduates is 4.8 percent, half that for high school (only) graduates (10 percent), and one-third of the 15.5 percent rate facing those without a high school diploma.
Class: And there remain huge differences in unemployment by occupation. The
highest rates of unemployment remain concentrated in working
class occupations. For production, transportation, and moving occupations
overall, the rate is 13.7 percent, up from 6.3 percent last year. For production workers it's 15.6 percent; movers and
transportation workers, 11.8 percent;
and construction and extraction jobs, 19.7 percent. For service
occupations, the unemployment rate is nearly 10 (9.4) percent.
Unemployment is significantly lower for the creative class. For
management and business occupations - including hard-fit financial jobs
- overall the unemployment rate is 4.6 percent,
up from 2.7 percent last year; and for professional and technical
occupations it is 4.2 percent, up from 2.5 percent a year ago.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/06/164/18841/
