News Day – February 6: Real unemployment numbers, Ford and PiPress jobs, early grad proposal

Unemployment — 7.6% or 15.4%? Federal figures released today show 7.6% unemployment in January, up 0.4% over December. Jobs lost during January numbered 598,000, according to the official count, for a total of 3.6 million jobs lost since the recession officially began in December 2007. Of course, those figures are not final, since job losses are revised monthly. Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised December job loss figures upward, from 524,000 to 577,000.

The numbers are mind-boggling, but what do they mean? Official unemployment counts only those people actively looking for work. So-called discouraged workers (who have given up), and people who are underemployed or, in the parlance of BLS, “marginally attached,” don’t count. The official unemployment rate of 7.6% is called U-3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A far bigger number, called U-6, measures

Total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers

That number is 15.4 percent in January, up from 13.5 percent in December.

The Washington Post reported new jobless claims of 626,000 in January, a 25-year high and much larger than the previously-predicted 591,000. About 4.8 million people are currently collecting unemployment compensatoin.

MN Job Watch In St. Paul, Pioneer Press Newspaper Guild workers will vote today on a management request that they take five unpaid days off between February 9 and April 30, reports David Brauer in MinnPost. Without the furlough, workers may face more layoffs, in addition to the eight workers laid off in January. (Of course, the furlough proposal offers no guarantee against future layoffs.) According to MPR, the furloughs would affect 307 union employees and a little more than 400 workers in all.

Also in St. Paul, Ford Ranger plant workers will have another two weeks of lay-off (next week and a week in March), reports Liz Fedor in the Strib. The new lay-off announcement came shortly after workers returned from a six-week lay-off in December and January. For Ranger sales dropped by 49.3 percent in January, and the plant is scheduled for closure in 2011.

Ametech Inc., a New Ulm plant that makes electrical servo motors, will leave MN for locations in Pennsylvania and North Carolina by September. The company has 80 employees in New Ulm, and about 11,000 employees worldwide, according to AP.

Get out of high school early GOP Rep. Pat Garofalo (Farmington) wants to pay high school students to graduate early, reports the Strib via AP. He proposes to give a scholarship of $2500 per semester for students who graduate up to three semesters early, thereby saving the state money because per pupil funding is greater than that amount. DFL Rep. Mindy Greiling says this might be a bad deal for students, who could earn credits for even less money by taking PSEO or College in the Schools courses. Questions about whether the scholarship would have to be used in MN or within the U of M/MNSCU systems or all in the first year or prorated over four years remain unanswered, as the bill has not been formally introduced yet.

Farming by the numbers As a former farm girl and a long-time wonk, I find the new federal ag census fascinating. Here are some of the numbers for MN and the nation.