Unemployment in the United States

For my public policy topic, I decided to investigate unemployment in the United States. Data for all visualizations in this portfolio can be found on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website in the Labor Force Statistics section under Current Population Survey, found here: https://www.bls.gov/cps/tables.htm. Specifically, The data for unemployment rates by industry come from https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t14.htm and the data for unemployment by race comes from https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/race-and-ethnicity/2020/home.htm, and the unemployment rates by education come from https://www.bls.gov/charts/employment-situation/unemployment-rates-for-persons-25-years-and-older-by-educational-attainment.htm. The participants of the survey are considered civilian non-institutional population, unless otherwise stated. In the United States, “unemployment” is classified as a person that does not currently have a job, is actively looking for work in the past 4 weeks, and is currently available to work. There is a difference between being unemployed and not being counted in the labor force. Definitions of employed vs. unemployed and how they collected this data for CPS can be found here: https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm.

Unemployment rate: change over 30 years

This is a line graph that tracks the unemployment rate from 1982 to 2022. The figure shows that unemployment rates for both sexes have changed with a similar pattern. Men are shown to have higher unemployment rates than women through the graph although women had higher unemployment rates than men in certain years (1985, 1989, 2000, and 2020). The highest rate of unemployment for men is around 10.5% in 2010 and the highest unemployment rate for women is around 9.4% in 1982.

Unemployment: reasons by sex

This is a grouped bar chart that showcases reasons for unemployment, broken down by sex. The unemployment reason for both men and women with the largest number of people is “job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs,” followed by “reentrants.”

Methods of job search for unemployed: by sex

This visualzation shows job search methods for unemployed persons by sex. The categories of job seekers include the reasons how they became unemployed. This graph provides some insight to how people keep their “unemployment” status (job searching while not holding employment), as well as the different methods that are used to remedy unemployment. Two of the most popular method of job searching are “contacting employer directly” and “sending out resumes or filling out applications.” The least popular method of job search is “Private employment agency.” The graph can be found at https://public.tableau.com/shared/HYHDZ5KC4?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link.

Unemployment rate: state map

This is a map that showcases unemployment rates across the United States for 2022. As the map shows, the states with lowest unemployment rates are the Dakotas (North and South), and the state with the highest unemployment rate is Nevada. States ranged between 2% to 5% unemployment rate in 2022. From what the map shows, there are a good portion of states between the 2.7% to 4% unemployment range as well. The map can be found at https://public.tableau.com/shared/ZXHY9K2HT?:display_count=n&:origin=viz_share_link.

Unemployment duration

This grouped bar chart shows the duration of unemployment in 2022. There are two categories displayed here: all workers (part time, full time, contract, etc.) that are unemployed, and full time workers that are unemployed. The two categories of workers for this graph include all workers (part time, full time, contract, etc.) that are unemployed and full time workers that are unemployed. One thing that stood out from this data is that the duration of unemployment percentages for both categories of unemployed persons were similar, except for the “less than 5 weeks” category where all unemployed workers had at least 5% more people than the full time unemployed workers.

Unemployment rate: by industry

This is a grouped bar chart that shows unemployment rates by industry, comparing rates for 2022 and 2023. Looking at the graph, the industry with the lowest unemployment rate was the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry. The industry with the highest unemployment was leisure and hospitality. The industry with the largest difference in unemployment rate between 2022 and 2023 is the agriculture and related private wage and salary workers industry.

Unemployment rate: race

This figure shows unemployment rates from 1971 to 2021. I created a fifth category, “Nonwhite,” in the graph to capture the picture of the average white vs. non-white unemployment rates in the country, as sometimes data is not show disaggregated. It is important to note that data for “Asian” starts in 2000 (also captured in a footnote in the graph). Comparatively, “White” is the category with the lowest rates of unemployment for the entire timeline (1971 - 2021). “Asian” was the only race that had lower unemployment rates than “White.” “Black or African American” has the highest unemployment rates overall, not being surpassed by any other group.

Unemployment rate: Marital Status

This is a group bar chart that was facet wrapped to show unemployment rates for different marital groups by race and year. This data compares groups from 2021 and 2022. While marital status and unemployment rate are not always looked at in relation to each other, I thought it might provide insight, as costs of living increase and the need for dual or multi-income households becomes increasing necessary. For each racial group, the rates of unemployment dropped from 2021 to 2022. It’s important to note that this data includes opposite-sex and same-sex couples. The “separated” category (under “B,” defined as “Widowed, Divorced, or Separated”) includes persons who are married with absent spouses.

Unemployment and job desirability: by age group

This visualization shows job search and desirability for three age groups over 2021 and 2022. I thought it might be important to look at the relationship between being unemployed and the urgency or desire to return to the workforce. it’s interesting to note that all of the age groups (from both 2021 and 2022), the category with the most individuals is “does not want a job now.” The definition of “now” is not clearly defined, but the immediacy of this action would be good to note, in comparison to the “want a job” category. The Tableau visualization can be found at https://public.tableau.com/views/Unemployeddesireandavailabilityforwork/Dashboard1?:language=en-US&:increment_view_count=no&:embed=y&:embed_code_version=3&:loadOrderID=1&:display_count=y&publish=yes&:origin=viz_share_link.

Unemployment rate: sex and education

This is an interactive Shiny application shows unemployment rates by education level with a breakdown by sex. In this visualization, there are 8 different education level categories. The colors are specific to each group for sex. I had to use jittering on the graph because there are certain points where the unemployment rate is the same for two or more of the sex groups. Unemployment rates were highest for all groups with the education level “less than a high school diploma,” and lowest for all groups with an education level “advanced degree.” I thought it was important to keep the education levels that I consider “in between degrees” as part of the data. It can be found at https://eileyfong.shinyapps.io/Unemploymentratesexanded/.

Thank you for a great semester!