{"id":28,"date":"2016-02-10T05:58:09","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T05:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zanavu.com\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2016-02-10T05:58:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T05:58:09","slug":"grads-missing-in-jan-2016-blsreport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zanavu.com\/notes\/2016\/02\/10\/grads-missing-in-jan-2016-blsreport\/","title":{"rendered":"400,000 graduates go missing from the US in Jan 2016. Where are they?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I discovered that we seem to have lost nearly 400,000 (yes four hundred thousand) graduates from the US. This is based on employment status of civilian population 25 years<\/a> and older. See the section “Bachelor’s degree and higher” – Civilian Labor Force.<\/p>\n

Over the past four days there has been a lot of chatter in the news and economics media about the recent employment report. Every month the Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>\u00a0publishes an Employment Situation report. See Jan 2016 repot here<\/a>. Over the many years, I always listened to the commentary about the same from many folks. I was always impressed with the amazing array of statistics and numbers quoted, thanks to the venerable employment report. This month I decided to check it out.<\/p>\n

Unlike in the past, something special happened last month to yours truly. After twenty-one years of gainful employment and learning, I had resigned from\u00a0a big company (Thank you Microsoft). I am also a graduate as per Labor Statistics. And furthermore, I had not started a new employment yet. Truly this is a special situation!\u00a0I know that all the past organizations I was associated with have declared that I am out of employment: Premera sent me notice that I have to accept new health care card … and I am singing up with Obamacare at Washington Health Care Finder, 401K status likely changing as per the Fidelity Representative, etc. Of course I also understand that I am a tiny spec in this big employment market. Nonetheless the extra time afforded me an opportunity to learn more.<\/p>\n

Overall I am impressed about the consistent reporting of data from BLS.gov. It is a short and sweet report;\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0there are a lot of talk about revisions which makes it a bit challenging to decipher fullness clearly. It is great to see rich and diverse data collected, cleansed of noise, analyzed, and made available as a report. The ancillary\/summary statistics are very useful. Still I am trying to figure out why they repeatedly call it as non-farm payroll, history I suppose. Next month’s report is due on March 4th at 8:30AM; I hope to read it again.<\/p>\n

Back to the original question: What happened to the 400,000 missing graduates. First when I saw this number, especially the difference between Dec 2015 and Jan 2016 to be 398,000 (about 400,000), I was surprised. Now I can think of a few reasons for this situation.<\/p>\n