The share of Americans who lack a job and actually want one has never been lower, as far as government survey data goes.
About 3 percent of Americans didn’t have a job and wanted one in October, which is the lowest number based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Census Bureau data going back to 1994.
The number suggests that even Americans who haven’t previously tried to get a job for one reason or another are coming from off the sidelines.
This percentage is different from the unemployment rate, which only counts people in the “labor force,” meaning those who work or who sought a job in the past four weeks. Aside from excluding people under 16 and uniformed military personnel, the unemployment rate also misses all those who’ve given up seeking work as well as those who’d like to work but aren’t currently looking because they go to school or have health problems, transportation issues, or family responsibilities.
As such, America had just over 5.5 million people counted as unemployed, but nearly twice as many who actually wanted jobs in October.
The number of people not in the labor force but who want a job has only been tracked on the BLS website since 1994, and the data isn’t adjusted for seasonal changes, which can cause natural month-to-month shifts.
Willing to Work
The number of Americans willing to jump back into the labor force surprised some economists, who had predicted in mid-2017 that the economy was getting to “full employment.”Full employment is a somewhat chimeric term that means a point of balanced labor supply and demand. Once beyond full employment, the theory goes, employers have to boost salaries to compete for workers. As a result, prices—and thus inflation—go up.
Unemployment Rate Stays Low
The economy added 128,000 jobs in October, which is down from the revised numbers for September (180,000) and August (219,000).The unemployment rate slightly increased to 3.6 percent in October from 3.5 the previous month. That seems to be mostly because tens of thousands of General Motors workers were on strike for most of October and thus were counted as jobless.
Trump’s Tariffs
Low unemployment benefits President Donald Trump, since a strong economy is one of the main pillars of his platform.Trump has imposed tariffs on $550 billion worth of Chinese imports in an attempt to force the Beijing regime to open its market to American goods and companies, stop stealing U.S. intellectual property, stop forcing U.S. companies to hand over industry know-how, and address other U.S. grievances.
China retaliated by placing tariffs on U.S. products, so the flow of goods diminished in both directions. Yet China imports from the United States less than one quarter of what it exports to the United States, which means it holds the short end of the stick in the trade war.