2012 in Unemployment Data

Now that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has released its final unemployment numbers for the year, let’s take one last look at 2012’s unemployment indicators, month-by-month. We’ve compiled a year’s worth of our own, more-inclusive U-7 figures — our all-inclusive measure of the un- and underemployed — and the government’s official estimates.

You can see the changes were mostly in step with each other, but that U-7 is consistently higher, usually more than double, the official release. As we explain here each month, our gauge includes those who work part-time for economic reasons (they need a full time job but have to settle) and those the government no longer includes in looking for work. For a quick view on a particular month’s unemployment rate, mouse over the chart lines.