We're Still Feeling Jobs Nostalgia for June 2008
Eight and a half million Americans unemployed; 1.6 million Americans without a job for 27 weeks or more; 7.7 percent unemployment for Hispanics, 9.2 percent for blacks; 5.4 million Americans only able to find part-time work; 5.5 percent of Americans unemployed. This was what the jobs picture looked like in June 2008. And we're still nowhere near approaching those numbers.
Those negative numbers were, of course, going up. The U.S. economy had officially entered a recession in December 2007, and the economy was beginning to hemorrhage jobs, with 62,000 jobs lost that month. Things would only get much worse come September. But five years later, the U.S. economy still hasn't begun to touch the level of employment of June 2008.
Here are those same findings, from the new June 2013 jobs report: 11.8 million Americans unemployed; 4.3 million Americans without a job for at least 27 weeks; 9.1 percent unemployment for Hispanics, 13.7 percent unemployment for blacks; 8.2 million Americans only able to find part-time work. And the unemployment rate is stuck at 7.6 percent.
And this is after an all-around, pretty good jobs report. But for the U.S. to just get back to the recession level of 8.5 million Americans unemployed, the economy would need more than 16 months of 200,000 monthly jobs added.
