Bad Employment Picture The workforce

Bad Employment Picture

The workforce unemployment rate fell to 6.2% in July, but only because a lot of people gave up looking for jobs and left the workforce. The number of jobs filled actually fell by 44,000. The recession ended in November, 2001, but the recovery has been slow. The EPI points out that

"Since the business cycle expansion began in November 2001, payrolls have contracted by one million (1.2 million in the private sector), making this the weakest recovery in terms of employment since the BLS began tracking monthly data in 1939..."

EPI illustrates the point with this graphic:

The source for this graph is: "Dip in jobless rate, yet hiring slump persists"