Quick Takes on Another Sluggish Jobs Report
As former Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley used to say, “on account of the time factor”… some quick links on the August jobs report.
Two positive things can be said about today’s jobs report from the Labor Department. First, it was significantly better than the one for August 2009, and June and July 2010 were not as bad as had been previously calculated. The stock market apparently loves the report since many experts were predicting far worse.
There were 60,000 jobs created if you leave out the Census. Overall: 54,000 jobs lost, with 121,000 government layoffs, including 114,000 Census workers. Private-sector jobs created: 67,000. Unemployment rate: a rise to 9.6 percent. Unemployment plus underemployment: a rise to 16.7 percent. Number of Americans officially unemployed: 14.9 million. Number unemployed, underemployed and so in despair they’ve given up looking: perhaps 16 million. The employment-population ratio: up a tenth of a point to 58.5 percent.
During the first eight months of 2010, fewer new private-sector jobs (763,000) have been created than were lost in January 2009 alone. At the current rate of new job creation, it will be mid-2017 before as many Americans are working as was the case 32 months ago when the Great Recession began.
Nonfarm payrolls decreased by 54 thousand in August. The economy has gained 229 thousand jobs over the last year, and lost 7.6 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007.
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This is another weak report, however the upwards revisions to June and July were a positive. The participation rate increased slightly – and that is good news – but the unemployment rate also increased.
Not a Good Payroll Report
The nearly stagnant pool that is the private sector job market shows just how desperately the private sector needs a public jobs stimulus.
Tags: public jobs stimulus, unemployment
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