Snapshot for October 15, 2008.

Stimulus now! Underemployment at 14-year high

by Nooshin Mahalia

The growing number of underemployed workers is painting a grim picture of the difficulties jobseekers are facing. Underemployment is a more comprehensive measure of labor market slack than headline-grabbing unemployment rates because it also includes part-time workers who want full-time jobs (“involuntarily” part-time workers), and jobless workers who want a job but are not actively seeking employment (“marginally attached” workers).

At 11%, the underemployment rate in September was at its highest in more than 14 years. The underemployed currently includes about 9.5 million unemployed workers, 6.1 million involuntarily part-time workers, and 1.6 million workers only marginally attached to the workforce.¹ The fact that one out of every nine U.S. workers is now either unemployed or underemployed is clear evidence of the need for a second stimulus package targeted at job creation.

Note
1. Data on the number of unemployed and the number of involuntarily part-time workers are seasonally adjusted. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not release the seasonally adjusted number of marginally attached workers so the reported number is not seasonally adjusted.