The percentage and number of unemployed adults are important indicators of community economic health and well being. As indicators of economic conditions, they can be used in conjunction with employment figures to gauge economic recovery. They can also provide insight into the level of employment-related services a community may need to provide (more services could be needed as the unemployment rate increases). With North Carolina's growing population, it is important to consider both unemployment rates as well as changes in the number of unemployed adults as the number of unemployed people could increase at the same time the unemployment rate decreases.
To calculate the unemployment rate for each city we divided the number of unemployed 25 to 64 year olds by the number of 25 to 64 year olds in the labor force (including those employed in the Armed Services). Institutionalized adults are not included in these calculations. We chose to look at 25 to 64 year olds primarily because these are the prime employment ages. We also wanted to remain consistent with our employment indicator which looked at 25 to 64 year olds to avoid the potential impacts of students on employment figures.
The American Community Survey defines the labor force as people who are employed, members of the United States Armed Forces, and the unemployed (not working but actively seeking employment). It is also important to understand that anywhere from 15 to 35 percent of the 25-64 year old population may not be part of the labor force, as they are not working or actively seeking employment. A persin is considered unemployed if they: (1) were neither "at work" nor "with a job but not at work" during the reference week, and (2) were actively looking for work during the last 4 weeks, and (3) were available to start a job. Civilians who did not work at all during the reference week, were waiting to be called back to a job from which they had been laid off, and were available for work except for temporary illness were also included as unemployed. Go here for more detailed information on how the Census Bureau defines "labor force "and "unemployed."
According to the Census Bureau, it "introduced an improved sequence of labor force questions in the 2008 ACS questionnaire. Accordingly, we recommend using caution when making labor force data comparisons from 2008 or later with data from prior years." Unemployment rates were calculated from the following sources and tables for the referenced years: