Rutgers' Labor Scorecard for American Workers

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Labor Day honors the contributions American workers make to the United States economy, but a new National Labor Scorecard released today by the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) reveals a mixed bag for workers, who may have less to celebrate and more to be concerned about this year.

"The economy is the number one issue going into the presidential race, and the scorecard provides a way to look at this area from the perspective of the American worker," said Professor Douglas Kruse, a labor economist, who created the scorecard along with his colleagues at SMLR, a leading resource on workforce issues.

Highlights:

•     Today, more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work, or underemployed, a nearly 25-percent increase (24.2 percent) from one year earlier. 
•     More than a half million Americans (530,000) have been subject to mass layoffs in the last year, a growth of nearly 5 percent, but a lower rate than five and 10 years ago.
•     Over the last eight years, the percent of workers who are working part time who would prefer to be in full-time jobs has gone up over 72 percent.
•     The percentage of Americans working more than 48 hours/week has been steadily declining, to the latest figure of 17.8 percent.
•     Unemployment rates are highest for blacks and Hispanics/Latinos, and their increases in the past year have been greater than the increases for whites. 

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