Retraction Subtraction
09/10/2012 | | Dept of labor, Economy, jobs, labor supply, laborforce participaton rate, net new jobs, New Jobs, unemployment rate
The economy added just 96,000 jobs in August. Worse, the DOL lowered the June and July estimates by 41,000! While the unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, it did so only because 368,000 Americans left the labor force, reducing the participation rate to 63.5% from 63.7%, its lowest level since 9/81. Factory employment fell by 15,000, the most in 24 months and temp agencies reduced employment by 5,000, but construction added 1,000!