Unemployment rate in majority of the US states has gone up in the month of June. The National unemployment rate remains constant at 7.6 percent in may and june. Employers have added 195,000 jobs in the previous month. But there is a sudden increase in jobless rate in the states.
The Labor Department said that unemployment rates rose in 347 large metro areas in June compared to the previous month. They fell in 12 and were unchanged in 13 states. In May, rates fell in 109 cities and rose in 243.
What is leading to a sudden increase in unemployment rate in US?
Many of the cities whose jobless rates have gone up have big Universities where students graduated in June and started looking for work. And also many of the University workers remain unemployed during the end of academic year leading to seasonal unemployment.
Among the 49 cities with more than 1 million population, Detroit had the highest unemployment rate at 10.3 per cent. That’s up from 9 per cent in May.
The economy is yet to recover and this addition to the employment market can lead to severe youth unemployment in the nation which is already worse hit. According to a recent poll, young Americans are finding themselves with fewer job opportunities as the recovery continues.
The poll, conducted by Gallup, discovered that only 43.6 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 had a full-time job in June 2013. That rate is lower than the 47 percent of millennials who were employed full-time in 2012.
But there is a flip side to US unemployment problem there are 3 million jobs going vacant. Employers have failed to seek a right match for more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs alone.
The transportation, utilities and trades sectors have almost half a million jobs open, waiting for the right applicant. These positions are for vocational or skilled workers, who are in short supply.
Bill Begal, who runs a Rockville, MD-based disaster-cleanup company, told Bloomberg News that he has spent almost $2,000 since March on help-wanted ads in newspapers, websites, and state employment services up and down the East Coast to find sales and administrative staff.
“I want people to come out and work for me,” said Begal, 42, whose teams respond to hurricanes, such as Katrina in New Orleans and other natural disasters. “Where are they? I just don’t see it.”
There is also a growing need for tradesmen, such as auto mechanics, appliance repairmen, plumbers, electricians and more. Few young people are learning trades and when the older workers retire there are not enough skilled workers to replace them.
More young people should give the trades a longer look; salaries in many cases are quite good. And a student beginning his career immediately after high school has a four-year head start compared to classmates who start their job search after college.
“I need workers who have gone through trade school and have taken certain courses. But I see a lot of unemployed college graduates saddled with huge student loan debts. They don’t have the skills that I need,” he continued. “The lack of skilled technicians is slowing our growth to add markets as aggressively as we may want.”
Majority of the youth prefers to compete for better paying corporate jobs, which has led to these sectors going without having skilled workers.