Challenger's layoff count, at 51,183, rose sharply in October but from a
14-year low in September of 30,477. The count in October last year was
45,730. Layoff announcements were heavy across a number of industries in
the latest month including retail, computer, pharmaceutical, and
telecom.
...meanwhile...
October unadjusted Payroll to Population employment rate was 44.4
percent, down nominally from September (44.8 percent). Meanwhile,
unemployment hit a four year low (6.2 percent) but workforce
participation remained weak (66.6 percent). The employment rate
percentage of Americans employed full time for an employer is still
among the highest in any October since Gallup began tracking P2P in
January 2010, exceeded only by the 45.7 percent in October 2012, the
highest single estimate in Gallup's trend.
Workforce
participation among U.S. adults declined slightly to 66.6 percent in
October, from 67.2 percent in September. Workforce participation
measures the percentage of adults 18 and older who are working or who
are not working but are actively looking for work and are available for
employment. The workforce participation rate has ranged narrowly between
lows of 65.8 percent and highs of 68.5 percent since January 2010.
However, workforce participation dropped below 67 percent in August 2013
and has mostly remained below that level since.
Surprisingly,
the age group with the most consistent pattern of declining workforce
participation is not "baby boomer" retirees but 35 to 49 year-olds, who
should be in their prime working years. This age cohort has seen its
workforce participation decline from an annual average of 84.0 percent
in 2010 to 82.8 percent in 2013 and 82.2 percent so far in 2014. The
oldest cohort, those aged 50 and older, actually showed mostly
increasing workforce participation through 2013, and has measured lower
participation only in 2014 to date, albeit lower than in any year since
Gallup began measuring this.
Gallup's U.S. not-seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate fell after a bump up to 6.6 percent in
September, to 6.2 percent in October -- the lowest unemployment rate
observed since Gallup began tracking it in January 2010. Unemployment
has so far fallen farther in 2014 -- from 8.6 percent in January -- than
in any of the previous four years. However, unemployment is generally
at its lowest level in October of each year, so it is reasonable to
expect unemployment to creep back up as the year ends. Tracking with
unemployment, Gallup's measure of underemployment also hit a five year
low in October, at 14.8 percent. Gallup's U.S. underemployment rate
combines the percentage of adults in the workforce who are unemployed
(6.2 percent) and those who are working part time but desire full time
work (8.6 percent).
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