The economic recession brought one of the largest number of unemployment rates in 27 years. A recent study conducted by the American Time Use Survey compared weekday activities of the employed and unemployed. This annual time use survey according to an article in The Los Angeles Times, asked thousands of residents to recall every minute of a single day. The article also founds out that on an average weekday, the unemployed sleep an hour more than the employed and they also clean their house, do yard work and other chores more than the employed. The study found that “the employed also spend an extra hour in the classroom and an additional 70 minutes in front of the television.”
According to the United States Department of Labor, people who are unemployed are not benefiting from their losing a job and their families and country are greatly affected. “Workers and their families lose wages, and the country loses the goods or services that could have been produced.” Unemployment within a particular industry could also affect the jobs of others, according to the Q&A fact sheet on the United States Department of Labor’s website.
This graphic demonstrates the current rates of unemployment by each state.
According to the unemployment rates of last year, found at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state with the highest unemployment rate is Michigan, that increased by 9 percent, 1.0 percent to 10.6 percent Rhode Island is second 10.0 percent, up 0.7 percent, and South Carolina is third with 9.5 percent up 1.1 percent.
The states with unemployment rates at their lowest continue to be Wyoming 3.4 percent, up 0.2 percent, North Dakota (3.5 percent, up 0.2 percent, and South Dakota 3.9 percent, up 0.5 percent.
According to an article written by Bloomberg news California and Nevada have reached record high unemployment rates, where California’s rates were at 12 percent and Nevada is at 13.2 percent.
