What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office? (May 2012 update)

This report has been updated for JUNE 2016 HERE

***********************************************************************
All June 2016 reports and details HERE.
***********************************************************************

This report is outdated.  For current reports, please click on one of the links above. 

What was the unemployment rate when Bush left office and Obama was inaugurated? 7.8%

What was the unemployment rate at Obama's first full month in office (February 2009)?  8.3%

How high did it go?  10.0%

What is today's (May 2012's) unemployment rate?   8.2%

What Caused the Rise in the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office?  Why has the Unemployment Rate Increased Since Obama Took Office?  (Continue reading below)

How many people were looking for work when Obama was inaugurated, how many were working?  And how many people are looking for work and how many are employed now?

Keep reading!

May Jobs Numbers Summary 2012

The following numbers are as of May 2012.  For Latest Numbers, please click HERE!

May Jobs Reports & Summaries:

• May Jobs Numbers: Terrible? Or Bad Seasonal Adjustments?
• How Many Jobs Has Obama Created or Lost? (May 2012 update)
• How Many Jobs Created or Lost in May 2012?
• Private & Govt Jobs Month by Month 2011 & 2012 (May Updates)
• Job Growth & Loss Year by Year Since 1999
• • What Was the Unemployment Rate When Obama Took Office? (May 2012 update)
• May summary:  A seemingly glum report with few new jobs and revisions downwards of the prior two months.  However, more people jumped into the labor market (labor force) and the total number of people reporting themselves as employed went up significantly.  
• Economy adds 69,000 jobs in May.  (This is a net number; in other words, this refers to the total number of jobs reported by employers.  69,000 more jobs were created than lost in May in seasonally adjusted numbers.) 
• Private employers add 82,000 jobs in May.  Manufacturing added 12,000 in May, but April manufacturing numbers were revised downwards by 6,000 jobs. 
• April jobs numbers were revised downwards by 49,000 total; April private sector numbers were revised downwards by 62,000.  
• Unemployment rate upticks slightly to 8.2% as 220,000 MORE people reported themselves as unemployed, and as about 642,000 MORE people reported themselves as in the labor force.  (Those people started looking for work.)  
• The brightest spot of this report is that 422,000 MORE people reported themselves as employed in May vs. April.  (However, this does conflict with the small increase in the number of jobs.)  
• Seasonal adjustments seem to be strange in this report.  In unadjusted "raw" numbers, 732,000 MORE people reported themselves as employed in May.  This increase adjusted to 422,000 MORE employed people.  (This makes sense as May is a hiring month.)  However, in unadjusted "raw" numbers, employers reported adding 789,000 new jobs, which is in line with the 732,000 people reporting themselves as employed.  However, the 789,000 new jobs adjusted down to only 69,000 new jobs in total.  Why are the seasonal adjustment factors between the Establishment (jobs) numbers and the CPS (household) numbers so skewed?  
• The number of people not in the labor force shrunk by 461,000, reinforcing the fact that many people jumped into the labor force in May.
• Unemployment among minorities and people without a high school education went up, but those unemployment rates are still lower than they were a year ago. 
• Unemployment among people with college degrees went down and now stands at 3.9%, one of the lowest rates for this group of people in three years.
• The number of people unemployed over 27 weeks went up, but it is still lower than the number of long-term unemployed in February 2012.
• The biggest decrease in the number of people who are unemployed occurred in the ranks of people who were unemployed 15-26 weeks.  There are 222,000 fewer people who report themselves as unemployed for 15-26 weeks.  
• The number of people who are unemployed because they permanently lost their jobs (vs. entering or re-entering the job market or being on temporary layoff) increased to 46.4% of the total unemployed, though this rate is still below what it was in February 2012.  
• Underemployment (U-6) rate went up to 14.8% (from 14.5%), but it is still below its levels of January 2012.
• Number of people working part-time who want full-time work increased by 245,000.  This is the second month in a row that this number has increased.
• Number of full-time workers decreased by about 266,000; number of part-time workers increased by about 618,000.  However, we do have about 2,000,000 MORE people working full-time than we did a year ago.
• • • ADP May Payroll Estimates: 133,000 New Private Jobs
• • How Many Jobs Lost Before Obama Took Office?

Latest Jobs Reports & Numbers HERE!