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Today's employment report has two main segments, the current population survey, which is used to calculate the unemployment rate(s) and current employment statistics, which is based on payroll data to derive the "jobs" number of 115,000 this month.
The CPS essentially surveys 50,000 households every month (on the 12th i believe) and takes into consideration different geographical locations of the nation to provide a well rounded report. Then, the BLS employs various time-series statistical techniques that take into consideration previous data to derive the unemployment rate, number of people employed, non-civilian population, etc.... According to this survey and the techniques involved, the U3 unemployment rate fell from 8.2% to 8.1%.
The CES surveys 400,000 businesses that employ something like 50 million employees. Similar to the CPS, the CES uses time-series analysis to derive the "job gains" or "job losses" figure along with various industry breakdowns (like how many construction jobs were lost or gained). According to the establishment data, 115,000 jobs were created in April, while the figures from February and March were revised upward from 240,000 to 259,000 and from 120,000 to 154,000 respectively.
As far as the unemployment rate is concerned, they simply take the figures derived from the data and simply divide each respective employment statistic (from U1 to U6) by the number of people in the workforce. Remember, unemployment is defined as a person who is actively seeking employment, but for some reason is unable to find said employment. The UE rate is simply the ratio that is extrapolated using the data and statistics derived from the survey.
Given that the CPS and the CES differ in population parameters, it is entirely possible for there to be positive CES data and positive CPS unemployment ratios and vise versa (negative job gains and falling unemployment rates).
So if I understand that correctly, we have 115,000 more jobs this month in this country than we had last month?
Remember, unemployment is defined as a person who is actively seeking employment, but for some reason is unable to find said employment.
Is there a report that shows us the actual percentage of adults who are working?