On January 8th, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of December. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

Despite an overall decrease in non-farm employment, the prime-age employment rate increased slightly from 76 percent to 76.3 percent.

The unemployment rate increased for Latinx workers in December as employment declined significantly in the leisure and hospitality industry where these workers are over-represented.

The unemployment rate was unchanged in December, but an increasing proportion of unemployed workers were on temporary layoff or new entrants to the labor market.

As the pandemic surged in December, an increasing proportion

Overview

Implementing policies that improve job quality in the United States could come with a direct cost, such as the cost to a U.S. company from raising wages or providing more paid time off. For these reasons, business interests often argue against policies that improve U.S. labor standards. Yet these qualms are short-sighted. Research on the cost of employee turnover reveals that it costs an average of 40 percent of an individual employee’s annual salary to find a replacement if that employee leaves in search of better job opportunities.

In contrast, U.S. labor market policies that improve job quality have been shown to increase job tenure. Reducing the cost of employee turnover and improving the well-being of workers reinforce each other to the benefit of both companies

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for October 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

The quits rate was unchanged at 2.2% for October, nearly the same level as it was in October 2019, prior to the pandemic.

With hires decreasing by 74,000 and job openings increasing by 160,000, the vacancy yield decreased slightly in October.

The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings continued to

An essential worker restocks the shelves at a Walmart in Salem, Ore., May 2020.Today’s U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Jobs Report demonstrates a stalled jobs recovery following the deep and rapid economic decline brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The unemployment rate has decreased slightly to 6.7 percent, but still remains higher than the 3.5 percent unemployment rate in February prior to the start of the coronavirus recession.

The workers who have been hit the hardest continue to be Black workers (10.3 percent), and Latinx workers (8.4 percent). Women workers saw a decrease in unemployment (6.1 percent) that was accompanied by a slight decline in labor force participation (57.1 percent). These workers are also disproportionately low-wage workers as the service sector

On December 4, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of November. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

Prime-age employment held steady at 76 percent showing no improvement in November, after a steep decline in the spring and only a partial recovery in the summer and fall.

The unemployment rate for Black workers remained in double digits at 10.3 percent, while the unemployment rate for White workers declined slightly to 5.9 percent due to workers dropping out of the labor force.

Part-time workers who would prefer full-time work saw no improvement in November as involuntary part-time employment remains 2.3 million above the February level.

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for September 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

The quits rate increased slightly to 2.1 percent in September, signaling stalled prospects for workers. 

The vacancy yield was essentially unchanged in September, as the rate of job openings stayed at 4.3 percent and the rate of hires remained at 4.1 percent. Hires decreased significantly in the federal

On November 6, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of October. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

While the employment rate of prime-age workers continued to recover in October, reaching 76 percent compared to the pre-pandemic height of 80.5 percent, the pace of its improvement has decreased since the summer.

The unemployment rate fell to 6.9 percent for all workers, but was significantly higher for Black workers at 10.8 percent. The uncontrolled pandemic, occupational segregation, and labor market discrimination limit the ability of Black unemployment rates to recover and converge with other demographic groups.

Employment growth continues to

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for August 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

The quits rate declined slightly to 2.0% in August as the tenuous recovery stalled.

The vacancy yield edged up slightly as job openings declined and hires were unchanged. The steady hires rate was a result of increased government temporary hiring for the Decennial Census balanced by decreased hiring

An MTA worker deep cleans a New York City subway car, July 2020. According to the latest Employment Situation report released by Bureau of Labor Statistics today, the U.S. economy in September added 661,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, reflecting an important slowdown in employment growth. Also known as the Jobs Report, the release shows that the share of 25- to 54-year-old prime-age workers who have a job fell from 75.3 percent in August to 75.0 percent, and the number of unemployed workers who report being on a permanent layoff increased by 345,000 for a total of 3.8 million workers out of 12.6 million unemployed workers in September. 

This final Jobs Report before the 2020 presidential election calls into question what policies are needed to foster an equitable and sustained

On October 2nd, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of September. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

The employment-to-population ratio for people in their prime working years fell slightly from 75.3 percent to 75.0 percent in September, signaling a stalling recovery for the labor market.

The unemployment rate for Black and Latinx workers remains in double digits at 12.1 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively, remaining significantly higher than White and Asian American workers. In May, Asian American workers saw an unprecedented increase in unemployment, which later fell but remains elevated above White workers.

Employment growth

Black women hold almost one third of nursing assistance jobsToday is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. This is the day until when Black women have to work, from the start of 2019 through August 2020, to earn as much as White men earned in 2019 alone. In dollars and cents, Black women who work full-time, year-round earn 62 cents for every one dollar full-time, year-round White men workers earn. Lower earnings year-over-year means a lower level of well-being and increased economic risk in a downturn.

Black women face unique barriers at the intersection of race and gender in the U.S. labor market. In a Equitable Growth working paper, titled “Returns in the labor market: A nuanced view of the penalties at the intersection of race and gender,” Mark Paul of the New College of Florida,

JOLTS collects data on job openings, hires, layoffs, quits, and other separations between workers and employers.The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today released its monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for the month of June. Also known as JOLTS, the survey collects data on job openings, hires, layoffs, quits, and other separations between workers and employers, providing information on the labor market dynamics behind June’s overall change in employment.

Over the past few months, JOLTS data have shown how the coronavirus recession has, so far, been different from previous downturns. In typical economic contractions, the number of job openings, hires, and quits usually start to fall before there is a surge in layoffs because workers and employers become more cautious

Latinx workers constitute 24 percent of the leisure and hospitality industry.With novel coronavirus infections still rising in many states, an ongoing squeeze on already hard-hit workers and businesses, and uncertainty about the federal government’s next economic relief package, July’s Employment Situation Summary by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the labor market lost some of its momentum toward recovery compared to May and June. And women workers, Asian, Black, and Latinx workers, and workers with lower levels of education are all continuing to experience particularly high rates of unemployment.

After record job losses in April followed by strong employment gains in May and June, the U.S. economy recovered1.8million jobs in July. The share of prime-aged adults

On August 7th, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of July. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

While the labor market added a relatively robust 1.8 million jobs in July, the prime-age employment-to-population ratio only increased slightly from 73.5% to 73.8%.

While unemployment rates have been declining for White, Hispanic, and Asian workers since May, the decline has been slower for Black workers, whose unemployment rate was at a high level of 14.6% in July.

Unemployment rates continue to be higher for those with lower levels of education, but workers with a college degree experienced the smallest decline in unemployment in July at

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for May 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

The quit rate rebounded slightly to 1.6% in May, but remains far below its high of 2.3% in February.

As state economies began re-opening, the vacancy yield increased, reflecting a series of 6.5 million new hires in May.

Despite an increase in job openings and a decrease in unemployment, there were

The latest jobs numbers released by the federal government today indicate the brunt of the job losses due to the coronavirus recession continue to fall heaviest on Black and Latinx workers, even though the month-on-month changes between May 2020 and June 2020 were better overall. Over those 2 months, the U.S. economy gained 4.8 million nonfarm payroll jobs, the share of the employed prime-aged population increased from 71.4 percent to 73.5 percent, and the jobless rate fell from 13.3 percent to 11.1 percent.

This latest monthly Employment Situation Summary—also known as the Jobs Report—from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the U.S. unemployment rate is now below its April peak but remains well above the Great Recession high of 10 percent. What’s more, the share of

Cashiers heading the registers at a Walmart in Saugus, Mass., February 2018. Occupational segregation—the disproportionate representation of a group in any type of job—hurts workers and the entire U.S. economy by entrenching racial and gender wage gaps, depressing earnings, and limiting workers’ ability to go into their preferred fields of work. Research shows that differences in education or skills fail to explain a large chunk of persisting job stratification, and that discrimination and longstanding social norms play an important role in preventing workers from being proportionately represented in the U.S. occupational structure.

To illuminate the current status of occupational segregation in the United States, below are four graphs that demonstrate the extent to which

Between 1950 and 2000, as the share of women in a given occupation rose, wages in those positions tended to fall.Overview

Occupational segregation is defined as a group’s overrepresentation or underrepresentation in certain jobs or fields of work. This factsheet elaborates on how occupational segregation in the United States has contributed to lower wages for workers along lines of race and gender and, in turn, contributed to broad wage inequality in the entire U.S. labor market. Furthermore, evidence suggests that the overrepresentation of marginalized groups of workers in occupations reduces their wages irrespective of other measures of productivity such as required skill level, and that integration across occupations has stalled out for Black and Latinx workers.

In the

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for April 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

1.
The quit rate continued to fall in April, declining to 1.4% from 1.8% in March, down from a steady 2.3% in the months prior to the recession.

2.
As hires reached a low of 3.5 million (since the data began collection in 2000) and openings declined to 5.0 million, the vacancy yield continued to trend downward

The coronavirus recession continues to highlight and deepen the structural inequities that have long made the U.S. economy so fragile.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly Employment Situation Summary—also known at the Jobs Report—the unemployment rate fell from 14.7 percent in April to 13.3 percent in May and the economy recovered 2.5 million nonfarm payroll jobs. After prime-age employment experienced the steepest decline in history in April, the share of the population aged 25 to 54 that has a job rose to 71.4 percent in May.
But the Jobs Report also shows that May’s decline in joblessness was mostly driven by White workers, whose unemployment rate went from 14.2 percent in April to 12.4 percent in May. The unemployment rate of Hispanic workers also fell, albeit

Equitable Growth supports research and policy analysis on how trends in economic inequality and mobility and changes in the economy have affected the concentration of wealth, income, and earnings, and how these distributional shifts have affected the promise of economic security and opportunity. More

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for March 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

1.
The quits rate decreased sharply from 2.3% in February to 1.8% in March, as workers’ confidence about job prospects declined amid the public health crisis and requisite state shutdowns.

2.
While both the rates of job openings and hires decreased in March, openings did more so, leading to a slight increase

On May 8th, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data on the U.S. labor market during the month of April. Below are five graphs compiled by Equitable Growth staff highlighting important trends in the data.

1.
The employment rate for prime-age workers plummeted 10 percentage points, erasing all gains for those in their prime working years during the recovery from the Great Recession.

2.
The unemployment rates for black and Hispanic workers shot up to 16.7 percent and 18.9 percent, respectively, compared to a steep but less severe increase for white workers up to 14.2 percent.

3.
Jobs losses occurred across industries, with the greatest decline in leisure and hospitality, which shed 7.7 million jobs, or nearly half of all jobs in this sector.

Every month the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases data on hiring, firing, and other labor market flows from the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, better known as JOLTS. Today, the BLS released the latest data for February 2020. This report doesn’t get as much attention as the monthly Employment Situation Report, but it contains useful information about the state of the U.S. labor market. Below are a few key graphs using data from the report.

1.
Two months prior to social distancing measures, the quit rate remained steady at 2.3%, reflecting confidence about the labor market before the unexpected decline in economic activity.

2.
The vacancy yield reflected a tight labor market with more job openings than hires taking place for the month of

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning released its monthly Employment Situation Summary, the first Jobs Day report to capture just how hard the coronavirus recession is hammering the U.S. labor market. The new report, coming after yesterday’s towering 6.65 million Unemployment Insurance claims, means that after decades of rising economic inequality, the decline in the power of unions, and the erosion of the safety net, U.S. workers are going to be particularly unprepared for this sharp and sudden economic downturn.
Today’s Jobs Day report shows that after months of historically low unemployment, the unemployment rate climbed to 4.4 percent for the first time since August 2017. The share of the population that is employed dropped to 60.0 percent, a massive 1.1 percentage