US employment finally back to pre-bust levels, latest report ‘no game changer’ for housing | Inman News

As economists had expected, the latest employment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that with the U.S. adding 217,000 jobs in May, the number people in the workforce has finally surpassed pre-bust levels, to a new all-time high.

Unemployment is still higher than most would like — 6.3 percent by the most commonly employed measure, and higher by others. The so-called U-6 measure, which includes 7.3 million people working part-time because that’s all they can find, stood at 12.2 percent, notes Calculated Risk blogger Bill McBride.

Long term unemployment remains a key problem, McBride says — 3.374 million unemployed workers have been on the hunt for a new job for more than 26 weeks. But overall, “this was another solid employment report,” the widely followed blogger wrote.

McBride says he’ll be retiring what some readers have called the “scariest jobs chart ever,” which he’s been running to show the severity of the downturn, “until the next recession.”