Unemployment rose to 9.6%, as expected. What happened is that there was a larger increase in the labor force (+550M) than in so-called household employment (+290M), resulting in an increase in unemployment (+260M). That’s how it works.
The headline result, overall jobs declined 54M, not quite as bad as expected. The private sector job gain, at +67M was a tad better than expected.
Why did overall jobs fall? Due to another huge decline in temp census workers and another drop in state and local gov’t employment.
In conclusion, the economy is generating a modest number of private sector jobs, firing on 5 of 8 cylinders. Only BO’s policies stand in the way of a full blown recovery.
Miscl: The workweek and total hours worked were unchanged as expected. Hourly earnings at +0.3% were better than expected. We don’t know if this indicates future trend or not. Probably not.
Robert Craven
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