December 2012
Unemployment Rate: 7.8 percent
Unemployed Americans: 12.2 million

"Real" Unemployment

• The "real" unemployment or U-6 rate is 14.4 percent for December 2012. This is the total percentage of unemployed and underemployed workers.

• The "real" number of unemployed Americans is 22.7 million. These are people who are unemployed (12.2 million), want work but have stopped searching for a job (2.6 million), or are working part time because they can't find full time employment (7.9 million).

Labor Force Participation

• The labor force participation rate is 63.6 percent, same as last month. If the labor force participation rate were the same as when the President took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.7 percent.

• If the labor force participation rate was the same as December 2011 (64.0 percent), the unemployment rate would be 8.4 percent, just 0.1 percentage point lower than the December 2011 unemployment rate of 8.5.

Employment

• The Department of Labor reported an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent for December 2012, unchanged from November, and an increase of 155,000 nonfarm jobs.

• For the past two years, the average number job gains have stagnated at 153,000 jobs per month.

• President Obama promised an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent by this time.

• The Department of Labor revised total nonfarm jobs for October and November up 14,000. The October numbers were revised down from +138,000 to +137,000. The November numbers were revised up from +146,000 to +161,000.

Weeks, Hours & Wages

• The number of Americans searching for work for more than 27 weeks is 4.8 million, holding steady compared to last month. The average number of weeks a worker is unemployed is 38.1 weeks – nearly double from when President Obama took office.

• The average work week for private nonfarm employees edged up by 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours.

• The average hourly private nonfarm payroll increased by 7 cents to $23.73. Year over year hourly earnings have risen just 2.0 percent. Consumer Price Index is up 1.8 percent.

http://www.rpc.senate.gov/policy-papers/december-2012-unemployment-report