Discouraged workers are continuing to exit the labor force after giving up hope of finding a job, driving down the unemployment rate as they exit a new Gallup unemployment survey found.
The survey, conducted midway through the month of May, found that the unemployment rate – as measured by Gallup – declined from 8.3 percent in April to 8.2 percent in mid-May.
Gallup’s survey is different from the official unemployment rate compiled by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in that the Gallup survey is a 30-day tracking survey conducted from mid-April to mid-May. In contrast, BLS conducts its survey over one week in mid-May.
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