There is good news on the unemployment front – the rate and number of unemployed workers continues to decline.
There are 2.0 million unemployed workers in occupations with unemployment rates below the natural rate (4.5% to 5.0%). Many of these occupations require a college degree. The two-digit Standard Occupational Code (SOC) precedes each category
33 Protective service 4.1%
19 Life sciences 4.0%
11 Management 4.0%
25 Education 3.8%
17 Architecture & engineering 3.8%
13 Business & finance 3.7%
15 Computer & math 3.5%
21 Community & social services 3.5%
23 Legal 3.1%
29 Healthcare practitioners 2.5%
There are 2.4 million unemployed workers in occupations with unemployment rates between the natural rate and the U.S. average (7.8%). Some of these occupations require some form of higher education.
27 Arts & design 7.8%
43 Office support 7.6%
31 Healthcare support 7.3%
49 Installation & maintenance 6.0%
There are 6.9 million unemployed workers in occupations with unemployment rates above the U.S. average. Most of these occupations don’t require higher education.
45 Farming, fishing, & forestry 16.1%
47 Construction & extraction 15.8%
37 Building maintenance 13.3%
35 Food preparation 11.0%
53 Transportation 10.9%
39 Personal care & service 9.2%
51 Production 9.1%
41 Sales & related 8.2%
In many cases, there is a clear mismatch of worker skills and company needs. In part, this has exacerbated the length of the recovery.
©Copyright 2011 by CBER.