What Do the BLS Employment and Unemployment Numbers Mean?
Employment: Each month the Current Employment Statistics (CES) program surveys about 150,000 businesses and government agencies, representing approximately 390,000 individual work sites, in order to provide detailed industry data on employment, hours, and earnings of workers on nonfarm payrolls. The BLS publishes a monthly “Current Employment Statistics Highlights.” This report identifies trends in key industry groups. URL: www.bls.gov/web/ceshighlights.pdf [15] Unemployment: BLS conducts a monthly household survey, providing comprehensive information on the employment and unemployment of the population classified by age, sex, race, and other characteristics.” An online BLS publication outlines, “How the Government Measures Unemployment.” http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm In BLS employment and unemployment data, there are basically three categories that all people, age sixteen and over fall into: • People with jobs are employed. • People who are jobless, looking for jobs, and availab
