1 minute read

Monthly Unemployed by Reason

This week I was browsing the US Bureau of Labor Statistics website and found the latest report on monthly unmployment reasons. It breaks down unemployment reasons to New entrants, Reentrants, Job leavers, Job losers not on temporary layoff, and Job losers on temporary layoff. According to BLS, Job leavers include those who quit or voluntarily ended their jobs and immediately began searching for a new job. Reentrants previously worked but were out of the labor force before they began their job search. New entrants are looking for their first job and have no previous work experience.

My Visualization

This visualization is a side by side line chart – each column is one unemployment reason with a line chart showing the weekly # of unemployed. This layout makes it easy to compare the trend for different reasons.

Please notice that all the visualizations are designed for desktop view, so it is recommended to view them on a desktop device.

Dashboard link

Insights

  • There was a clear spike in unemployment from “Job losers, on temporary layoffs” around April 2020, then followed by another spike in the “Job losers, not on temporary layoffs” in the second half of 2020 to 2021. This aligns with the waves of massive layoffs;
  • Since the beginning of 2024, we see the unemployment numbers going up again, especially in the Job losers, not on temporary layoff category, and the Enentrants category. This is likely related to the macroeconomics changes.

Follow this link to find more weekly vizzes :)