KEYS:
1. 24.6 million (-.2 mil from past month)= 13.9 mil. Unemployed + 8.5 mil. Involuntarily working part-time + 2.2 mil. Who are not even counted = 24.6 million workers who are either unemployed or underemployed or 16.6% of all workers! = 1 in 6 workers still unemployed or underemployed in May BLS figures!
2. The recession has killed off 7.9 million jobs. Many of them are not coming back!
3. BLS said that the National Unemployment rate edged up .1% to 9.1% in May.
4. Key: after 20 straight (May 2009 to January 2011) months of the unemployment rate being 9.4% or higher it finally dropped below 9.4%!
5. Illinois unemployment rate 8.7% in April (Projected).
6. Gain of 54,000 non-farm jobs in May.
7. The gains were: a) Professional and business servings gained 44,000 jobs in May b) Health Care which rose by 17,000 in May (Key: has averaged 24,000 added per month during the past 12 months) and c) Mining added 7,000 in May (Key: has risen 115,000 since the low point of October 2009).
8. The losers were: a) manufacturing, which was down 5,000 jobs, and b) local government employment, which continues to decline and was down 28,000 for the month!
9. How bad is it? At May’s pace of only 54,000 jobs created, it would take over 7 years or until late this decade to make up for all the jobs lost by the recession.
