Tens of millions of Americans remain jobless, but all want full-time jobs, mostly as a result of economic shutdowns spurred by the Chinese coronavirus crisis, new unemployment data shows.
The latest Burea of Labor Statistics data from August reveals that about 20.6 million Americans remain out of a job, but all want full-time employment. Another 7.6 million Americans said they are involuntarily working part-time jobs but want full-time hours.
About 16.1 percent of those considered unemployed, 13.6 million last month, are teenagers and 13 percent are black Americans. As employment data showed in July, working class Americans continue to be the hardest hit by the crisis’s economic repercussions.
Of the millions unemployed, 6.2 million Americans were temporarily laid off from their jobs, while 3.4 million were permanently laid off.
In addition to the unemployed, seven million Americans are out of the labor force entirely. This total includes about 535,000 considered “discouraged workers” because they did not believe there were jobs available for them.
For August, there continues to be nearly 30 million Americans who are either unemployed or underemployed, but all of whom want full-time jobs without facing increased foreign competition in the labor market.
President Trump has sought to prioritize unemployed Americans for jobs. In an executive order months ago, Trump halted the inflow of H-1B, H-4, H-2B, L-1, and J-1 foreign visa workers. Since then, State Department officials issued guidance on the order, creating loopholes for visa flows to continue.
Every year, the U.S. admits about 1.2 million legal immigrants on green cards to permanently resettle in the country. In addition, another 1.4 million foreign workers are admitted every year to take American jobs.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.