Bureau of Labor Statistics

Betsey Stevenson, who was the Labor Department’s chief economist from 2010 to 2011 and is now at the University of Michigan, said this week’s jobs figures would typically be wrapped up earlier in the week and could presumably get out the door. But da...

Donald Trump's recent firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics chief Erika McEntarfer has left many uncertain about the direction of the economy and the state of federal data reporting. Betsey Stevenson, economics professor at the University of Michi...

Justin Wolfers, Ford School professor and economists, says the most recent job report data shows that “This is a fundamentally healthy labor market, continuing its earlier momentum, albeit at a slightly slower pace."  

Sixteen percent of Detroit residents in the labor force were unemployed as of March 2023, according to the latest survey from the University of Michigan's Detroit Metro Area Communities Study.  The latest unemployment estimate essentially holds s...

Employers added 223,000 jobs in December 2022, capping a year marked by record low unemployment and high job growth. The unemployment rate fell to 3.5% with a slight increase in the labor force participation rate and employment rate, according to new...

As part of a Detroit Public TV special segment on the brutal economic effect of the COVID-19 recession on women, Betsey Stevenson discusses the precipitous drop in female labor force participation over the last year — a shocking 57% drop, to the lowe...

Farm work was the heart of the American economy at one point, but the growth of cities and booming industrial revolution sent many flocking to cities, and farmworkers have been dwindling ever since. One stark illustration of this fall can be seen thr...

Luke Shaefer's article, "How should we define “low-wage” work? An analysis using the Current Population Survey," was published in the Monthly Labor Review, the flagship journal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in October 2016. Introduction L...