Inglés - C2 - Are We Looking At The Wrong Jobs Numbers?

Study Notes

The US economy added 850,000 jobs in June, but the unemployment rate still went up from 5.8% in May to 5.9% in June.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out six unemployment numbers every month, from U-1 to U-6.
U-3 is the unemployment rate that is commonly reported, but labor economist Nick Bunker believes U-3 is not a good measure of what's happening in the labor market right now.
Nick is paying attention to U-4, U-5, and U-6, which count discouraged workers, marginally attached workers, and underemployed workers.
Nick has created a U blend that includes U-3, U-4, and U-5 but excludes furloughed workers.
Nick's U blend peaked at just over 6% and was 5.8% in June.
Nick believes the labor market is in a pretty good place right now.
The fact that Nick's U blend is close to the U-3 number probably means most furloughed workers are back at work and not being counted as unemployed.
However, there are still 9.5 million jobs that would exist right now if the pandemic had not happened.
The economy is not in a terrible state, but the flatlining of the unemployment rate is not great news.
The economy has lost millions of jobs due to the pandemic.
Unemployment rates have skyrocketed.
The economy is slowly recovering but still has a long way to go.
Millions of jobs have been added back, but there are still millions more to go.
It will take two or three years to create all the jobs that were lost.
Nick is waiting for the economy to fully recover.
The unemployment numbers are currently a topic of interest to labor economists.
Nick wants to live in a universe where unemployment numbers are not a concern.
The article focuses on the impact of the pandemic on the economy and job market.
The economy is on a path to recovery, but it will take time to fully bounce back.