How Many People are Actually Employed?

By Tim McMahon, editor

In June 2011 the Total Non-Farm Employment Not Seasonally Adjusted Rate was 132.079 Million. In other words 132 million 79 Thousand people had jobs. This is up from 131.703 in May 2011. Or an increase of 376 thousand jobs. It is also up 1 Million 171 Thousand from June 2010. In April 2011 the number was 131,072. In March 129,899 people had jobs.

Everyone is always talking about the unemployment rate but it seems strange that no one in the U.S. talks about the employment rate. In Europe they look at the employment rate. How many jobs are actually filled? Yes, I admit that it is important to know what percentage of the population want to work but can’t find a job. But the problem is the tracking. When the government tracks the unemployment rate the number is subject to all kinds of variations.

To determine the employment rate the U.S. government surveys 390,000 businesses nationwide every month. The raw number is what we use here it is not seasonally adjusted. This number is considerably more reliable than the 60,000 households that they survey to obtain the unemployment rate. And I prefer it to the seasonally adjusted number. This survey is submitted by the businesses monthly based on company employment on the 12th of the month.

By looking at the employment rate we will know how many jobs there are in our economy, pure and simple. (As Detective Joe Friday in Dragnet would say, “Just the facts Ma’amâ€