March 21, 2000 (The Editor’s Desk is updated each business day.)

Job leavers larger share of unemployed

The level of unemployment declined for almost every reason in 1999. The sole exception was an increase in the number of persons unemployed as a result of leaving their jobs voluntarily. As a result, the share of the unemployed made up of job leavers rose by one and one-half percentage points to 13.3 percent.

[Chart data—TXT]

There were slightly fewer unemployed persons on temporary layoff, but their share of total unemployment still rose by half a percentage point to 14.4 percent.

Both numbers and shares of the unemployed declined for permanent job losers, for those who completed temporary jobs, and for new entrants to the labor force. The number of unemployed reentrants edged down, while their share of the unemployed was little changed.

These data are a product of the Current Population Survey. For more annual average data on unemployment, see the Table 28 of the January 2000 issue of Employment and Earnings. You can access additional pre-formatted tables from Employment and Earnings through the Current Labor Statistics button on the Monthly Labor Review homepage.