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Reasons for unemployment in November 2015

December 08, 2015

In November 2015, about 3.9 million people were unemployed because they had lost their jobs involuntarily or had completed temporary jobs. There were 586,000 fewer unemployed job losers in November than a year earlier. There were 2,444,000 unemployed reentrants to the labor force in November 2015, about 317,000 fewer than a year earlier. Reentrants are people who previously worked but were out of the labor force before they began their job search.

Number of unemployed people by reason for unemployment November 2005 – November 2015, seasonally adjusted
MonthNew entrants ReentrantsJob leaversJob losers and people who completed temporary jobs

Nov 2005

673,000 2,451,000 913,000 3,515,000

Dec 2005

633,000 2,361,000 817,000 3,483,000

Jan 2006

616,000 2,261,000 821,000 3,349,000

Feb 2006

711,000 2,316,000 872,000 3,366,000

Mar 2006

636,000 2,174,000 833,000 3,399,000

Apr 2006

591,000 2,172,000 853,000 3,505,000

May 2006

517,000 2,135,000 862,000 3,473,000

Jun 2006

646,000 2,163,000 828,000 3,369,000

Jul 2006

639,000 2,372,000 850,000 3,313,000

Aug 2006

646,000 2,274,000 854,000 3,283,000

Sep 2006

612,000 2,288,000 790,000 3,233,000

Oct 2006

572,000 2,255,000 779,000 3,125,000

Nov 2006

591,000 2,245,000 788,000 3,275,000

Dec 2006

586,000 2,162,000 785,000 3,243,000

Jan 2007

622,000 2,199,000 782,000 3,405,000

Feb 2007

599,000 2,082,000 846,000 3,395,000

Mar 2007

615,000 2,156,000 771,000 3,169,000

Apr 2007

620,000 2,162,000 742,000 3,354,000

May 2007

530,000 2,155,000 750,000 3,360,000

Jun 2007

640,000 2,113,000 828,000 3,383,000

Jul 2007

602,000 2,054,000 826,000 3,675,000

Aug 2007

588,000 2,047,000 797,000 3,625,000

Sep 2007

668,000 2,168,000 833,000 3,591,000

Oct 2007

696,000 2,086,000 782,000 3,706,000

Nov 2007

678,000 2,163,000 772,000 3,683,000

Dec 2007

679,000 2,334,000 778,000 3,871,000

Jan 2008

677,000 2,203,000 823,000 3,851,000

Feb 2008

656,000 2,129,000 796,000 3,894,000

Mar 2008

704,000 2,121,000 796,000 4,119,000

Apr 2008

625,000 2,119,000 847,000 4,067,000

May 2008

797,000 2,493,000 868,000 4,252,000

Jun 2008

786,000 2,533,000 859,000 4,390,000

Jul 2008

835,000 2,662,000 880,000 4,539,000

Aug 2008

821,000 2,655,000 1,019,000 4,942,000

Sep 2008

815,000 2,599,000 995,000 5,257,000

Oct 2008

819,000 2,623,000 931,000 5,706,000

Nov 2008

763,000 2,693,000 927,000 6,228,000

Dec 2008

803,000 2,826,000 990,000 6,653,000

Jan 2009

775,000 2,806,000 901,000 7,450,000

Feb 2009

999,000 2,939,000 837,000 8,079,000

Mar 2009

872,000 3,028,000 882,000 8,539,000

Apr 2009

901,000 3,107,000 869,000 8,960,000

May 2009

965,000 3,201,000 904,000 9,421,000

Jun 2009

1,001,000 3,331,000 819,000 9,529,000

Jul 2009

1,004,000 3,260,000 891,000 9,464,000

Aug 2009

1,085,000 3,282,000 842,000 9,641,000

Sep 2009

1,153,000 3,262,000 880,000 9,956,000

Oct 2009

1,102,000 3,411,000 903,000 9,931,000

Nov 2009

1,330,000 3,236,000 936,000 9,752,000

Dec 2009

1,241,000 3,371,000 923,000 9,591,000

Jan 2010

1,195,000 3,650,000 911,000 9,341,000

Feb 2010

1,192,000 3,469,000 877,000 9,596,000

Mar 2010

1,146,000 3,591,000 893,000 9,575,000

Apr 2010

1,187,000 3,772,000 930,000 9,415,000

May 2010

1,202,000 3,388,000 973,000 9,237,000

Jun 2010

1,174,000 3,300,000 888,000 9,039,000

Jul 2010

1,208,000 3,377,000 903,000 8,999,000

Aug 2010

1,278,000 3,372,000 870,000 9,127,000

Sep 2010

1,217,000 3,399,000 804,000 9,142,000

Oct 2010

1,277,000 3,481,000 854,000 8,884,000

Nov 2010

1,275,000 3,445,000 860,000 9,491,000

Dec 2010

1,306,000 3,379,000 920,000 8,831,000

Jan 2011

1,349,000 3,369,000 919,000 8,468,000

Feb 2011

1,288,000 3,352,000 895,000 8,353,000

Mar 2011

1,287,000 3,316,000 893,000 8,330,000

Apr 2011

1,300,000 3,422,000 948,000 8,290,000

May 2011

1,225,000 3,380,000 917,000 8,276,000

Jun 2011

1,239,000 3,500,000 967,000 8,154,000

Jul 2011

1,278,000 3,379,000 939,000 8,118,000

Aug 2011

1,260,000 3,514,000 975,000 8,027,000

Sep 2011

1,378,000 3,466,000 971,000 8,015,000

Oct 2011

1,288,000 3,368,000 1,076,000 7,889,000

Nov 2011

1,277,000 3,358,000 1,009,000 7,649,000

Dec 2011

1,283,000 3,365,000 955,000 7,571,000

Jan 2012

1,258,000 3,323,000 941,000 7,244,000

Feb 2012

1,379,000 3,345,000 1,041,000 7,132,000

Mar 2012

1,385,000 3,286,000 1,106,000 7,015,000

Apr 2012

1,361,000 3,407,000 1,001,000 6,838,000

May 2012

1,357,000 3,387,000 897,000 6,993,000

Jun 2012

1,327,000 3,247,000 921,000 7,101,000

Jul 2012

1,298,000 3,352,000 866,000 7,116,000

Aug 2012

1,270,000 3,325,000 941,000 6,890,000

Sep 2012

1,259,000 3,294,000 951,000 6,546,000

Oct 2012

1,300,000 3,290,000 1,037,000 6,545,000

Nov 2012

1,335,000 3,317,000 919,000 6,461,000

Dec 2012

1,290,000 3,600,000 998,000 6,526,000

Jan 2013

1,283,000 3,550,000 1,000,000 6,627,000

Feb 2013

1,271,000 3,309,000 957,000 6,443,000

Mar 2013

1,296,000 3,163,000 983,000 6,260,000

Apr 2013

1,276,000 3,194,000 873,000 6,329,000

May 2013

1,270,000 3,317,000 933,000 6,111,000

Jun 2013

1,259,000 3,300,000 1,024,000 6,087,000

Jul 2013

1,244,000 3,218,000 961,000 5,897,000

Aug 2013

1,302,000 3,105,000 877,000 5,909,000

Sep 2013

1,199,000 3,157,000 978,000 5,857,000

Oct 2013

1,212,000 3,064,000 859,000 6,214,000

Nov 2013

1,154,000 3,047,000 880,000 5,762,000

Dec 2013

1,198,000 3,027,000 860,000 5,421,000

Jan 2014

1,181,000 2,911,000 815,000 5,354,000

Feb 2014

1,232,000 2,972,000 816,000 5,403,000

Mar 2014

1,157,000 3,027,000 807,000 5,416,000

Apr 2014

1,052,000 2,631,000 786,000 5,153,000

May 2014

1,063,000 2,869,000 872,000 4,959,000

Jun 2014

1,059,000 2,701,000 848,000 4,791,000

Jul 2014

1,080,000 2,860,000 857,000 4,830,000

Aug 2014

1,064,000 2,845,000 851,000 4,813,000

Sep 2014

1,094,000 2,805,000 816,000 4,521,000

Oct 2014

1,058,000 2,856,000 782,000 4,349,000

Nov 2014

1,045,000 2,761,000 835,000 4,480,000

Dec 2014

971,000 2,701,000 798,000 4,325,000

Jan 2015

1,033,000 2,829,000 851,000 4,242,000

Feb 2015

972,000 2,655,000 884,000 4,180,000

Mar 2015

815,000 2,689,000 875,000 4,189,000

Apr 2015

868,000 2,685,000 828,000 4,136,000

May 2015

971,000 2,615,000 829,000 4,267,000

Jun 2015

933,000 2,516,000 773,000 4,088,000

Jul 2015

826,000 2,447,000 843,000 4,143,000

Aug 2015

850,000 2,349,000 790,000 4,070,000

Sep 2015

831,000 2,436,000 780,000 3,908,000

Oct 2015

807,000 2,430,000 789,000 3,965,000

Nov 2015

843,000 2,444,000 800,000 3,894,000

There were 843,000 unemployed new entrants to the labor force in November 2015, down 202,000 from a year earlier. These are people who had never worked before they began their job search. There were 800,000 unemployed job leavers in November 2015, about the same as a year earlier. These are people who quit or voluntarily ended their jobs and began searching for a new job.

These data are from the Current Population Survey. For more information, see β€œThe Employment Situation β€” November 2015” (HTML) (PDF). For more charts featuring Current Population Survey data, see Charting the labor market: Data from the Current Population Survey (PDF).

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Reasons for unemployment in November 2015 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/reasons-for-unemployment-in-november-2015.htm (visited April 19, 2024).

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