Jobs by the Numbers
463,000 - Jobs lost so far this year
7 - Number of months we’ve seen a
consistent decline in job numbers
5.7% - July 2008 unemployment rate
4.7% - July 2007 unemployment rate
33.6 - Average weekly hours worked in
July 2008
2003 - The last year the average weekly
hours were this low
2.8% - Amount weekly earnings were up in
July 2008
4-5% - Current rate of inflation
(resulting in eroding wages!)
5.7 million - Part-time workers who would
prefer to work full-time in July 2008*
4.3 million - Part-time workers who would
prefer to work full-time in July 2007
*This is the highest number
since this Bureau of Labor Statistics
started compiling the data this way in 1994.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics data as
analyzed by the Economic Policy Institute,
August 1, 2008.