Category: Employment
The analysis published under this category are as follows.Monday, July 11, 2011
June's Abysmal U.S. Jobs Report is Just the Beginning / Economics / Employment
Kerri Shannon writes: The June jobs report was abysmal - bud sadly it's just the beginning.
After just a few months of modest, stimulus-induced improvement the jobs market is again sliding backwards into a "new normal" characterized by even higher rates of unemployment.
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Sunday, July 10, 2011
What Happened to the Jobs? So How's That Stimulus Thing Working Out? / Economics / Employment
The US jobs report came out this morning, and it was simply dismal. This week we look at not only the jobs report but also "what-if" proffers for the US and global economies. There's a lot to cover, so let's jump in.
First, there were only 18,000 jobs created in June, the lowest since September 2010. While private employment rose by 57,000, government workers dropped by 39,000, continuing a trend as governments at all levels work to cut their budgets. Long-time readers know I think it is important to look at the direction of the revisions, and we got no help. May was revised down by 29,000 jobs and April a further down 15,000.
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Saturday, July 09, 2011
U.S. June Jobs Report, Weak Labor Market Casts Shadow on Economic Growth / Economics / Employment
Civilian Unemployment Rate: 9.2% in June vs. 9.1% in May. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009.
Payroll Employment: +18,000 in June vs. +25,000 in May. Private sector jobs increased 57,000 after a gain of 73,000 in May.
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Friday, July 08, 2011
U.S. Payroll Stunner, Full "Pathetic" Jobs Report Analysis / Economics / Employment
Thoughts on the Jobs Report
Last month I commented things are awful at first glance and simply bad beneath the surface. This month things took a huge turn for the worse.
Three months ago I commented "It is very questionable if this pace of jobs keeps up." Clearly it didn't, for the second straight disastrous month. Certainly this cannot all be blamed on the Tsunami in Japan. The entire global economy is slowing rapidly as I have commented numerous times.
Friday, July 08, 2011
U.S. Employment Report, Do Not Overlook Government Hiring / Economics / Employment
The ADP National Employment Report is a private sector estimate of payroll employment published two days prior to the official report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics each month and it garners a great deal of market attention although it is not official data about employment.
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Thursday, July 07, 2011
Mixed Signals About U.S. Employment Conditions / Economics / Employment
The non-manufacturing ISM survey indicates a slowing of activity, the composite index declined to 53.3 from 54.6 in May. Readings above 50.0 denote an expansion of activity while those below 50.0 indicate a contraction of activity. The index measuring new orders (53.6 vs. 56.8 in May) fell, while the index tracking employment held nearly steady (54.1 vs. 54.0 in May, see Chart 2). The employment index of the manufacturing survey shows an increase (59.9 vs. 58.2 in May)
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Tuesday, July 05, 2011
U.S. June Employment Report Preview / Economics / Employment
The civilian unemployment rate of 9.1% and tepid growth in payroll employment (see Chart 1) after two years of economic growth remain a key concern. Chart 1 is an indexed chart where the level of employment in June 2009 (the end of the recession) is set equal to 100. Private sector payroll employment has risen past the level seen when the recovery commenced (100.91 in May 2011). The key contributions are from private sector services and factory employment. Government employment (excluding the spike related to temporary hiring for Census 2010) stands close to levels seen in 2007.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
More Efficient Ways to Stimulate Economy than Using the Military as a Jobs Program / Politics / Employment
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. . . . We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people." –Dwight David Eisenhower, "The Chance for Peace," speech given to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Apr. 16, 1953
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Wednesday, June 15, 2011
U.S. Jobs Market is Headed for a Double-Dip / Economics / Employment
Jason Simpkins writes: After showing some improvement over the past year, the U.S. job market is now beginning a double-dip.
The reason is simple: The number of start-up businesses has hit its lowest level since at least the early 1990s.
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Thursday, June 09, 2011
U.S. May Employment Numbers Show Faults in Recovery / Economics / Employment
May’s employment report couldn’t come at a better time. As soon as the Fed officially ends its quantitative easing program, new jobs data shows that the recovery investors have long been waiting for is still out of reach.
At the most topical level, the employment report was dismal – ignoring the obvious manipulation of the figures with birth and death estimates, seasonal but unreliable adjustments, and revisions to the downside that have become frequent with old employment data, there is still a gem to be found tucked deep inside the numbers.
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Saturday, June 04, 2011
U.S. Employment Situation Deteriorates as Hiring Slows and Unemployment Rate Rises to 9.1% / Economics / Employment
Civilian Unemployment Rate: 9.1% in May vs. 9.0% in April. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009.
Payroll Employment: +54,000 in May vs. +232,000 in April. Private sector jobs increased 83,000 after a gain of 251,000 in April.
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Saturday, May 07, 2011
Jump in U.S. Payroll Employment Stands Out / Economics / Employment
Civilian Unemployment Rate: 9.0% in April vs. 8.8% in March. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009.
Payroll Employment: +244,000 in April vs. +221,000 in March. Private sector jobs increased 268,000 after a gain of 231,000 in March. Revisions for February and March and February resulted in a net gain of 46,000 jobs in the economy.
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Friday, May 06, 2011
Don’t Be Fooled By The Jobs Report! / Economics / Employment
This was a week that confirmed that the economic recovery has stalled.
We knew from the previous week that economic growth (GDP) slowed to just 1.8% in the March quarter from 3.1% in the December quarter.
Saturday, April 09, 2011
Economists Shocked By Are We Really Losing Jobs to China! / Economics / Employment
There’s a nice new academic paper just out by an MIT economist and his friends that gives some hard data to back up everyone’s suspicion that the U.S. is losing jobs to China. It’s entitled “The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States,” by David Autor, and you can download it here if you’re curious.
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Monday, April 04, 2011
U.S. Jobs Report, Take This Job And Shove It / Politics / Employment
Barack Obama and his minions were out in force on Friday declaring that the 216,000 jobs added in February are proof of a recovering economy. The unemployment rate fell to 8.8%, down from 9.8% in April 2010. All it took was 2.8 million Americans to leave the labor force to achieve this fabulous reduction in the unemployment rate. The percentage of Americans in the labor force of 64.2% is the lowest since 1983. The employment to population ratio of 58.5% is also the lowest since 1983. These atrocious figures are after a supposed economic recovery that has been underway for the last 18 months.
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Saturday, April 02, 2011
U.S. March Employment Situation, Fed Remains on Track to Complete QE2 / Economics / Employment
March Employment Situation – Although Private Sector Payroll Growth is Impressive, Fed is on Track to Complete QECivilian Unemployment Rate: 8.8% in March vs. 8.9% in February. Cycle high for recession is 10.1% in October 2009.
Payroll Employment: +216,000 in March vs. +194,000 in February. Private sector jobs increased 230,000 after a gain of 240,000 in February. Revisions for January and Februay resulted in a net gain of 7,000 jobs in the economy.
Friday, April 01, 2011
What's a Job Good For? / Economics / Employment
Most people say that a job is good for making money. So, if you don't need money, what's the point? The fabled English aristocratic class of the late 19th and early 20th century apparently thought that way, if the caricatures painted by Jeeves and Wooster, Brideshead, and the like have any truth to them. Their main job was getting dressed and undressed. It seems like young Americans are thinking the same way.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
What is the U.S. Employment Picture in Really Saying? / Economics / Employment
Jobs Data - As in previous months, the private sector accounted for all the job gains in February, with an addition of 222,000 positions, up from a mere 68,000 job additions in January. This represented the largest gain since April 2010. Does this represent a sign of recovery?
Once you examine these job additions, you will see that the trend of low-wage, low/no-benefit, dead-end jobs remains firmly intact. [1]
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Tuesday, March 08, 2011
The Wisconsin Labor Dispute, More for Me Does Not Mean Better for Us / Politics / Employment
In the Wisconsin labor dispute, now increasingly spreading nationwide, I have lost count of the times union defenders have justified their position based on little more than the assertion that some union benefitted them or some member of their family — followed by the conclusion that all Americans must therefore gain. Unfortunately, that "logic" is invalid. A policy that gives me more does not mean the result is better for us. And the primary effect of unions and union-backed policies is to harm the vast majority of Americans.
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Sunday, March 06, 2011
More U.S. Jobs Mirage / Economics / Employment
The announcement on March 4 that 192,000 new jobs were created in February was greeted with a sigh of relief. But the number is just more smoke and mirrors, as I will show shortly. First, let’s pretend the jobs are real. What areas of the economy produced the jobs?
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