TRENTON, N.J. — Despite the nation’s highest jobless rate in 26 years, American workers are seeing encouraging trends, according to a report released on Labor Day by Rutgers University.
In its second national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said that for workers still collecting a paycheck, the average inflation-adjusted wages have actually increased and wage gaps for women and minorities have declined.
Still, the jobless rate continues to rise.
The Labor Department last week said the unemployment rate jumped to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983, reflecting a poor job market that will make it hard for the economy to begin a sustained recovery.
According to the study, nearly 17 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed — up from 10 percent last year.
The Rutgers labor scorecard, which doesn’t assign grades but charts whether indicators are improving or worsening, is based primarily on data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The scorecard offers a mix of good and bad news:
More than 1.2 million workers were in extended mass layoffs, more than double the 2008 figure.
Minorities and people with disabilities were harder hit. The unemployment rate is 8.6 percent for whites; 14.5 percent for blacks; 12.3 percent for Hispanics and 15.1 percent for people with disabilities.
More than 6 percent want to work full time, but work part time because they can’t find full-time work.
Median inflation-adjusted earnings for all wage and salary workers increased 3 percent.
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