Employment and Poverty Among the Homeless - Unemployment

The official unemployment rate has been the subject of considerable scrutiny and criticism over the years. Many social and economic researchers believe that the rate misrepresents the actual number of people who cannot find work to support themselves and their families. For example, the official unemployment figures do not count those who have given up searching for work because of failure to find work over a long period of time. The figures also leave out those who are underemployed, such as college graduates who take low-paying jobs or part-time jobs until adequate employment becomes available. It is likely, then, that the true number of people who cannot find adequate employment is higher than official statistics indicate.

Unemployment is a permanent feature of the economy. It can never be entirely eliminated since there will always be people who lose their jobs for various reasons. The transition between a lost job and the next job takes time even in the best of economic times.

The 1990s were a period of economic growth. The decade began with a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in 1990 of 5.6%. The rate rose to a high of 7.5% in 1992 and then fell to a low of 4% in 2000. A rise in unemployment between 2000 and 2002 (31%) reflected the downturn in the economy that began in 2001 and was exacerbated in the uncertainty that followed the September 11 attacks.

By the end of 2002 the unemployment rate was 5.8%. (See Figure 3.9.) The first two quarters of 2003 saw the unemployment rate continue to rise. By June 2003 it had risen to a high of 6.5%. By August 2003 the unemployment rate had fallen slightly to 6%, but there were signs of a growing number of people dropping off the unemployment registers, having given up the search for a new job. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in February 2005, eight million people were officially unemployed, or 5.4% of the labor-aged population wishing to work, down from the high of June 2003, but up from the previous month.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES BY POPULATION SEGMENT.

Some segments of American society have experienced more unemployment than other segments. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in Employment Characteristics of Families (April 2004), 8.1% of the nation's 75.3 million families reported having an unemployed member at some time during 2003. The proportion of black families with an unemployed member (13.7%) was higher than the proportion for Hispanic (11.1%), Asian (9.4%), or white families (7.1). (See Figure 3.10.)

Underemployed and Discouraged Workers

The U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey regularly reports unemployment figures as well as figures for adults who are not in the labor force and a subgroup of people not in the labor force who are discouraged and have stopped looking for work. Dis FIGURE 3.9
Unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted, March 2002–February 2005
SOURCE: "Chart 1. Unemployment Rate, Seasonally Adjusted, March 2002–February 2005," in The Employment Situation: February 2005, March 4, 2005, Bureau of Labor Statistics, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf (accessed March 6, 2005) FIGURE 3.10
Employment and unemployment in families, by race and Hispanic ethnicity, 2002-03 annual averages
SOURCE: Adapted from "Table 1. Employment and Unemployment in Families by Race and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity, 2002-03 Annual Averages," in Employment Characteristics of Families, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, April 20, 2004, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.t01.htm (accessed February 26, 2005) couraged workers give up looking for work specifically because they believe no jobs are available for them. In January 2005 the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey, that 515,000 workers had given up looking for work, up 83,000 over the number reported one year earlier.