KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Mountain-Plains Information Office of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization in Missouri — 2023.
The official concept of unemployment (U-3 in the U-1 to U-6 range of alternatives) includes all jobless persons who are available to take a job and have actively sought work in the past four weeks; this definition has been used since the inception of the Current Population Survey in 1940.
The measures discussed in this release allow users to review more narrowly defined concepts of unemployment (U-1 and U-2) or more broadly defined concepts (U-4 through U-6).
Assistant Commissioner for Regional Operations Michael Hirniak noted the following regarding the Missouri release:
In Missouri, 3.0 percent of the labor force was unemployed, as measured by U-3 in 2023, significantly lower than the national rate of 3.6 percent. The broadest measure of labor underutilization, designated U-6 (which includes the unemployed, workers employed part-time for economic reasons, and those marginally attached to the labor force), was 5.5 percent in Missouri, significantly lower than the 6.9-percent rate for the nation. (See chart 1.)
According to the U-3 definition (the official measure), Missouri had 93,300 unemployed residents in 2023. In addition, there were 58,000 workers who were employed part time for economic reasons (also known as involuntary part time). (See chart 2.) Individuals in this category were working part time because of slack work or business conditions, or because they were unable to find a full-time job.
These involuntary part-time workers make up the largest share of underutilized workers and are included in the broadest U-6 definition of unemployment.
The smallest group of underutilized workers is commonly referred to as ‘discouraged workers’ and is composed of persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them; discouraged workers are included in each of the more broadly defined U-4, U-5, and U-6 calculations.
In 2023, there were 4,500 discouraged workers in Missouri, accounting for 22 percent of the marginally attached in the state.
In 2023, the number of individuals considered to be marginally attached to the labor force in Missouri was 20,300. People marginally attached to the labor force are not working, but indicate that they would like to work, are available to work, and have looked for work at some time during the past 12 months, even though they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. In the United States, the number of people marginally attached totaled 1.46 million in 2023.
Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, are persons who are not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. In 2023, there were 4,500 discouraged workers in Missouri, accounting for 22 percent of the marginally attached in the state. The U-4 measure, which adds discouraged workers to the number of the unemployed (expressed as a percentage of the labor force plus the number of discouraged workers), was 3.2 percent in Missouri, significantly lower than the 3.9-percent rate for the nation.
State comparisons
In 2023, 13 states had rates significantly lower than those of the U.S. for all six measures of labor underutilization, while 4 states and the District of Columbia had rates higher than those of the U.S. for all six measures. (See chart 2.)
The U-4 rate includes discouraged workers; thus, the difference between U-3 and U-4 reflects the degree of would-be job-seeker discouragement. At the national level, the difference between U-3 and U-4 was +0.3 percentage point in 2023. No state had a noteworthy difference between these two measures.
The U-5 rate includes all people who are marginally attached to the labor force, and U-6 adds those who are involuntary part-time workers. Therefore, the larger the difference between U-5 and U-6, the higher the incidence of this form of “underemployment.” In 2023, 47 states and the District of Columbia had significant differences between their U-5 and U-6 rates. California had the largest gap (+3.5 percentage points), followed by Oregon (+3.3 points) and Washington (+3.0 points). At the national level, the difference between U-5 and U-6 was +2.4 percentage points.
Relative to 2022, Pennsylvania was the only state to experience significant decreases in all 6 measures of labor underutilization, while Mississippi had decreases in 5 of the 6 measures. For each measure, rates declined over the year for at least three states (U-2 and U-6) and as many as seven states (U-4).
Only California experienced over-the-year increases in all 6 measures, while New Jersey had increases in 5 of the 6 measures. Three additional states had increases in one measure (U-1 for Indiana and Texas and U-5 for Idaho). At the national level, rates were unchanged over the year for all six measures.