NC unemployment rate 8.8 percent?, Unchanged?, Labor Force Participation and percent of population drop .2 percent!!, Labor force and percent of population employed plummet from Jan to June

“North Carolina’s unemployment rate fell for the fourth consecutive month in May to 8.8 percent, but the slight drop was largely due to a shrinking labor force rather than the creation of new jobs, economists said.”…Raleigh News Observer June 21, 2013

“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013

“The NC Labor Force Participation Rate plummeted 1.2 percent from Jan to June 2013.”...Citizen Wells

You are being lied to.

The media headlines state that the NC unemployment rate remained unchanged in June 2013.

They omit the fact that both the Labor Force Participation Rate and Employment to Population Rates both dropped .2 percent in June.

From the NC Employment Security Commission June 19, 2013.

“The state’s seasonally adjusted June unemployment rate was 8.8 percent, remaining unchanged from May’s revised rate. The national rate also remained unchanged at 7.6 percent.
North Carolina’s June 2013 unemployment rate was 0.8 of a percentage point lower than a year ago. The number of people employed decreased 10,958 over the month to 4,292,497, and increased 29,341 over the year. The number
of people unemployed increased 596 over the month to 416,767, and declined 33,782 over the year.”

The labor force and unemployment estimates are based on the same concepts and definitions as those used for the official national estimates obtained from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a sample survey of households that is conducted for the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The LAUS program measures employment and unemployment on a place-of-residence basis. The universe for each is the civilian noninstitutional population 16 years of age and over. Employed persons are those who did any work at all for pay or profit in the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month) or worked 15 hours or more without pay in a family business or farm, plus those not working who had a job from which they were temporarily absent,
whether or not paid, for such reasons as bad weather, labor-management dispute, illness, or vacation. Unemployed persons are those who were not employed during the reference week (based on the definition above), had actively looked for a job sometime in the 4-week period ending with the reference week, and were currently available for work; persons on lay-off expecting recall need not be looking for work to be counted as unemployed. The labor force is the sum of employed and unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed as a percent of the labor force.”

Read more:

http://www.ncesc1.com/PMI/Rates/PressReleases/State/NR_June_2013_StRate_M.pdf

Here is the real story.

Not included in the above report which presents a favorable employment picture over 2012.

From Jan 2013 to June 2013.

The Labor Force Participation rate plummeted 1.2 percent!

The Employment to Population Rate plummeted .7 percent!

Don’t take my word for it. Look it up here.

http://esesc23.esc.state.nc.us/d4/LausSelection.aspx