2014 was a good year for job creation in the US economy as the post Global Financial Recovery finally gathers momentum. The year started with unemployment running at 6.5% and saw it end at 5.6%. This level of unemployment was last seen in June 2008 before the worst effects of the Global Financial Crisis were felt. The crisis saw official unemployment spike at 9.6% during 2010, but the worst US unemployment in “recent” times was seen in November 1982 when it stood at 10.8%. However, the 1982 figure was dwarfed by the level of unemployment seen during the worst of the Great Depression in 1933 when it peaked at 24.9%. Of course, in those simpler times, anybody without a job that wanted one was classified as unemployed – now you have to be registered as unemployed and actively seeking work to count, of course.
In the course of 2014, the US economy created 1.7 million jobs, but 8.7 million Americans are still regarded as unemployed and about 1/3 of this total are “long-term” unemployed, meaning that they have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. The current level of unemployment in the USA has now dropped below the average unemployment figure from 1948 to 2014 of 5.83%. The US workforce is expected to grow by 10.5 million over the next decade – i.e. approximately 1 million more people enter the US jobs market than leave it (through death, ill health or retirement) each year.
Much of the 0.2% decrease in unemployment seen between November and December 2014 has been attributed to people leaving the search for work and therefore ceasing to be considered as unemployed. Within the jobs created in December, professional and business services, healthcare, food services and construction enjoyed the strongest growth.