February 15, 2006 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Reason for unemployment, 2005

The percentage of unemployed persons who had lost their jobs or completed temporary jobs dropped to 48.3 percent in 2005 from 51.5 percent in 2004.

[Chart data—TXT]

The share of unemployed increased in each of the other categories shown on the chart. Reentrants accounted for 31.4 percent of the unemployed in 2005, up from 29.5 percent the year before. Job leavers made up 11.5 percent of the unemployed last year, compared with 10.5 percent in 2004. The share accounted for by new entrants was 8.8 percent in 2005, compared with 8.4 percent in the prior year.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. More information on the reasons for unemployment can be found in Table 27 (PDF) of the January 2006 Employment and Earnings.