... again Mish deserves deep gratitute for picking apart the official numbers ...
(snip)"February Jobs Report
With the above backdrop in mind, let's take a look at the February Jobs Report.
Nonfarm payroll employment edged down in February (-63,000), and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 4.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment fell in manufacturing, construction, and retail trade. Job growth continued in health care and in food services. Average hourly earnings rose by 5 cents, or 0.3 percent, over the month.
This notion of jobs "edging down" is preposterous. It takes about 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with the birth rate and immigration. The loss of 63,000 jobs was an unmitigated disaster that cannot be hidden by obvious spin aimed to soften the blow.
Details Worse Than Headline Numbers
Construction Jobs Fell 39,000
Manufacturing Jobs Fell 52,000
Goods Producing Jobs Fell 89,000
Private Sector Jobs Fell 101,000
Government Jobs Rose 38,000
Construction jobs and Manufacturing jobs are subsets of goods producing jobs. Those jobs tend to be higher paying jobs. Leisure and hospitality added 21,000 jobs and those tend to be lower paying jobs. Worse yet, the government added 38,000 useless jobs. Without those government jobs, the headline would have read 101,000 jobs lost. Arguably the headline numbers should be about private sector jobs in any case."(snip)
So there you have it. Last month 101,000 jobs were lost that derived their paychecks from 'adding value' or 'producing' something. But 38,000 new jobs were added by various gov't agencies, all of which derive their paychecks from the taxes leveed on remaining workers who 'add value' or 'produce' something - of which there are now 101,000 fewer taxpayers.
And before you say it, yes gov't employees pay taxes. But essentially this is only 'recyclking' since the money they pay in taxes goes right back to the same till from which their paycheck was drawn in the first place. So the 38,000 new gov't jobs really only add to the problem.



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