Lost in the political crisis on Jan. 8 was a Labor Department report that U.S. employment had declined – 140,000 in December – actually, leaving aside the absurdity of “seasonal adjustments” in this mass unemployment situation, by -330,000. This was the first reported decline since the massive employment collapse in April. Unemployment claims reported Jan. 7 only added to the picture: 19,700,000 Americans were getting some unemployment benefits in the week ended Dec. 26, and in the next week to Jan. 2, some 922,000 more filed new claims, the highest weekly number in months.
Total American employment is 9.2 million lower than December 2019 and that gap is growing again. The civilian labor force itself has shrunk by 4 million in a year because 4.9 million eligible workers now have not looked for work in more than a year. These 4.9 million should be added to the 19.1 million who are either officially unemployed, “discouraged/marginally attached” to the workforce, or forced to work part-time; so real unemployment/underemployment is a 24 million, 15% of the workforce.
