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!
Tag Archives: jobs
New Jobs? Uh…
The July jobs report showed 117K new jobs, but the report also showed no rise in temporary help, no jump in hours worked, no bump in overtime. And, annualized wage growth of 2.8% in July was less that the 3.4% inflation rate. While the unemployment fell to 9.1% it’s because 193K left the labor force! The share of the pop now working is just 58.1%, 1.3% LOWER than when the recession ended in 6/09.
No Jobs, Weak Productivity
Jobs, where are they? The Labor Dept. employment tally came in at 54K well off the 232K in April and 194K in March. While our economy may be entering another “soft patch” the thing is you don’t get 2 of them in the first 2 years of a normal economic recovery! The silver lining, labor productivity growth was lousy; just 1.8% in Q1, so more output will require more workers; someday.
Excellent Employment!
Hallelujah! The economy gained 244K jobs in April! Payroll data for Feb and March were also revised up by a combined 46K! Hiring in the private sector posted the largest increase in 5 years and was broad based! Ignore the rise in the unemployment rate to 9%. The bad news; gov’t employment fell 24K, avg hourly earnings rose a trivial 0.1% to $22.95 and the workweek was unchanged. All in all EXCELLENT.
Lousy Job Market
Latest job data for Jan showed job openings dropped 161K after a 45K decline in Dec and are at lowest level since 7/09. New hires also fell 193K and are down in 6 of last 7 months. The fact layoffs fell 158K in Jan offers little consolation but explains why jobless claims have been trending down much faster than employment growth has been rising.
Lots of People are Asking Why…
If profits are booming why aren’t jobs plentiful? Well, from what I can tell the bulk of earnings this cycle were derived offshore and since U.S. companies get “dinged” on earnings they remit home what happens is that the foreign-derived income stays exactly where it is earned―abroad!! Fixing the corporate tax code will help. Anybody paying attention on Capitol Hill?