Two months after President Donald Trump said that the United States would be forced to let foreign workers back into the country if they weren’t “highly skilled,” the labor market is still in shambles.
The U.S. has lost 1.9 million jobs in January.
The economy shrank 2.6% in the third quarter, the first contraction in over two years.
Here’s how to measure labor market weakness: 1.
The number of job openings is at its lowest level since October 2016.
The Labor Department says the total number of people unemployed has declined to nearly 8 million, down from a high of about 15 million at the end of 2016.
But the number of workers who are unemployed remains at record highs.
More than 8 million Americans are working part-time jobs, down by about 300,000 from a year ago.
About 1.7 million Americans say they’re looking for a job but have yet to find a job.
2.
The unemployment rate has fallen to 7.9%, down from 8.5% a year earlier.
The share of Americans who are jobless, now at a record high, is also falling.
A growing number of Americans say their children are living with their parents and in foster care.
3.
There are more Americans than ever who have been laid off, down about 4 million from a decade ago.
The jobless rate has climbed to 10.4%, up from 8% last month.
About half of Americans are either actively looking for work or are actively looking.
4.
The labor force participation rate, a measure of the labor participation rate of those who want to work but aren’t looking, fell to 66.4% in January from 67.9% in November.
The participation rate has stayed high despite the fact that the economy has shrunk by about half a million jobs since then.
That is the first time it has been below 65% since December 2011.
It remains above 70% for the first two months of 2018.
The rate has remained above 80% since March 2016.
