A Few Other Jobs Stats That Stood Out
Plenty of attention has been given to Trump’s recent firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) chief following last week’s dismal jobs report, which showed just 73,000 jobs added in July. While the headline payroll jobs data always grabs the spotlight, there are other stats in the report worth monitoring. Here are three that stood out.
#1: Multiple jobholders
One often misunderstood statistic is “multiple jobholders”— simply put, the number of people who hold more than one job.
A common interpretation is that rising numbers of multiple jobholders reflects bad times for the economy or the job market: People are taking on additional jobs because they can’t get by with just one job. (Thanks a lot, Biden!) I don’t dispute that this happens—it obviously does. But I do challenge the argument that an increase in multiple jobholders necessarily signals a bad economy.
On the contrary, the opposite is more often true. People tend to take on additional jobs when the economy is growing and the job market is robust.
Using BLS data on multiple jobholders, which goes back to 1994, a clear trend emerges: The number of people holding more than one job tends to increase during periods of economic growth, and it tends to decline during or immediately after recessions, highlighted grey in Figure 1.
Sharp declines are visible during the 2001 and 2020 recessions. The Great Recession showed some fluctuation throughout 2008, followed by a drop in mid-2009 that continued into 2010. The only time we see a sustained downward trend during an expansion is in the lead up to the 2001 recession. Outside of that, we consistently see more people taking on additional jobs when the economy is growing.
So why would someone take a second job if the economy is doing well?
The answer: The number of people holding multiple jobs doesn’t tell us anything about why someone would take a second job, but it does tell us that those jobs are available. In a recession, layoffs abound while job openings dry up — meaning fewer opportunities and greater competition for people who want a second job. In a growing economy, job opportunities rise and employers face more competition to hire, which leads to higher wages and better benefits.
More job openings + better pay = more people working multiple jobs.
That doesn’t mean no one took a second job because of the high inflation we just experienced, or that everyone’s financial situation was great. It simply means that because the economy was growing, people had the opportunity to take a second job.
Which leads us to the current situation: Over the past four months the number of people holding multiple jobs has declined by 594,000, from a record 8.9 million to 8.3 million.
That doesn’t mean it’s time to raise alarm bells. If the labor market remains strong, this could be just a temporary dip. But if the labor market is truly softening, then we can expect this number to fall further.
#2: Labor force participation
After payroll numbers, the next-most closely watched statistic is the unemployment rate. But there is a key flaw to how the unemployment rate is calculated.
It is computed by dividing the number of people who want a job, but do not have one, by the labor force, which is everyone who either has a job or is actively looking for one. Consequently, people who neither have a job nor want one are considered “not in the labor force” and therefore are not counted as “unemployed.”
So while the unemployment rate has remained fairly constant over the past year — hovering between 4.0 and 4.2% — the labor force participation rate has steadily declined, from 62.7% a year ago to 62.2% today (the post-Covid peak was 62.8%, last seen in November 2023).
Even more interesting, the seasonally adjusted size of the total labor force has shrunk in recent months, from 171.1 million in April 2025 to 170.3 million today, as shown in Figure 2, despite continued growth of the population.
This may simply be a matter of elevated deportations under the Trump administration. According to BLS data, since April the foreign-born population and labor force have declined by 1.1 million and 938,000, respectively. Interpret with caution, however, as BLS only reports these numbers without seasonal adjustment.
Still, it would make sense why we see both the labor force and participation rate falling: Foreign-born individuals are more likely to participate in the labor force than U.S.-born individuals.
#3: Unemployment duration
At first glance Figure 3 below suggests, correctly, a positive correlation between the rate of unemployment and its duration. Less notably, however, unemployment duration lags behind the unemployment rate.
So, while unemployment has hovered around 4.0–4.2% over the past year, that was still an increase from the 3.4% reached in April 2023. And unemployment duration is catching up: On average, people are unemployed over three weeks longer today than they were in April 2023.
What does that mean? People tend to associate an increase in the unemployment rate with an increase in suffering, but we often overlook how long people are unemployed, which is just as important.
So even though the percentage of unemployed people hasn’t changed much, those people are staying unemployed longer than they were a year ago.