UNEMPLOYMENT COULD BE HIGHER
The record unemployment figure, however, might not capture the full scale of job loss amid the COVID-19 fallout, due to the survey's timing and the traditional definition of unemployment, among other things.
"Because of the survey's timing, these data give a snapshot of the labor market from three weeks ago," Akabas said. The BLS's household survey reference period is generally the calendar week that contains the 12th day of the month, in this case April 12 through April 18.
"Since then, millions more have lost their jobs, as evidenced by the ongoing streak of record-setting unemployment insurance claims," Akabas said.
The new unemployment data came one day after the bureau reported that the number of initial jobless claims totaled nearly 3.2 million last week. In the prior week, the figure reached 3.8 million.
Besides, the BLS said that if the workers who were recorded as employed but absent from work due to "other reasons," which is over and above the number in a typical April, had been classified as unemployed on temporary layoff, the overall unemployment rate would have been almost 5 percentage points higher than reported.
Former BLS Commissioner Erica Groshen noted that millions have been laid off or left a job and are not hunting for a new one amid the pandemic, and they might not be defined as unemployed, the Marketplace reported.
The BLS report also showed that the labor force participation rate dropped by 2.5 percentage points over the month to 60.2 percent, the lowest rate since January 1973, when it was 60 percent.
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