U.S. Job Rebound Misses Those Looking Longest
Walter Hemphill fills out paperwork at an employment fair in Chicago. Photographer: Tim Boyle/Bloomberg
April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Bill Gross, who runs the world's biggest bond fund at Pacific Investment Management Co., Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley, and Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., offer their views on today's Labor Department report showing U.S. payrolls grew more than estimated in March. This report also contains comments from Scott Davis, chief executive officer of United Parcel Service Inc.; Christina Romer, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers; Carl Riccadonna, senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.; Michael Englund, chief economist at Action Economics LLC and David Kelly, chief market strategist for JPMorgan Funds. (Source: Bloomberg)
Americans out of work more than six months have barely benefited from the longest decline in the country’s unemployment rate since 1994.
The CHART OF THE DAY compares the percentage of the U.S. labor force in this situation with the comparable figure for those unemployed fewer than six months, according to data compiled by the Labor Department.
While the jobless rate dropped for the fourth consecutive month in March, the number of people going more than six months without work rose to 6.12 million. That’s more than four times the average since 1970, the period covered in the chart.
Those who exceeded the six-month threshold account for only 13 percent of the drop in unemployment since December, when the rate started shrinking. Their number fell by 206,000 as people out of work for shorter periods tumbled by 1.36 million.
The disparity represents “a persistent source of concern” as unemployment eases, Robert V. DiClemente, Citigroup Inc.’s chief U.S. economist, wrote in an April 1 report that had a similar chart.
Joblessness has decreased by a full percentage point during the four-month streak. March’s rate dipped to 8.8 percent, the lowest in two years, as the economy added 216,000 workers. The increase in employment was the biggest since May, when census- related hiring swelled the total.
To contact the reporter on this story: David Wilson in New York at dwilson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net
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