(snip)"Unemployment Hits 9.7%
We start with the 'official' announcement of the unemployment rate before I do the monthly rip-up of these Pollyanna numbers:
"Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in August (-216,000), and the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Although job losses continued in many of the major industry sectors in August, the declines have moderated in recent months.
Household Survey Data
In August, the number of unemployed persons increased by 466,000 to 14.9 million, and the unemployment rate rose by 0.3 percentage point to 9.7 percent. The rate had been little changed in June and July, after in- creasing 0.4 or 0.5 percentage point in each month from December 2008 through May. Since the recession began in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 7.4 million, and the unemployment rate has grown by 4.8 percentage points. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.1 percent), whites (8.9 percent), and Hispanics (13.0 percent) rose in August. The jobless rates for adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (25.5 percent), and blacks (15.1 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
The civilian labor force participation rate remained at 65.5 percent in August. The employment-population ratio, at 59.2 percent, edged down over the month and has declined by 3.5 percentage points since the re- cession began in December 2007. (See table A-1.)
In August, the number of persons working part time for economic reasons was little changed at 9.1 million. These individuals indicated that they were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. The number of such workers rose sharply in the fall and winter but has been little changed since March. (See table A-5.)
About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, reflecting an increase of 630,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.
Now here's the grim of this Grimm statistical fairytale.
1. See Table A. The civilian labor force reportedly shrank 422,000 in the most recent month.
2. See Table A. Number of people not in the workforce increased by 637-thousand. If you're confused when payrolls fell by only 216,000 for the month, don't feel like the Lone Ranger.
3. See Table U-6. The number of people who are unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, PhD's flipping burgers and so forth was 16.8% this month, up from 16.3% last month.
4. See CES Birth/Death Model Adjustments: This is the 'statistically made up because we think so" department. Hmmm, lemme see here: 15,000 new jobs in construction...sure, whatever... 26,000 in professional services, and 24,000 leisure and hospitality. Uh huh. In all, 673,000 new jobs have been 'estimated into existence' since January and if you back out January, it's more than a million jobs that have been 'estimated into existence' so far this year.
No fair reaching for a swig of Jack Daniels - too early for that. It's only a 26-year high for unemployment.
The "G20 to pledge stimulus until economic recovery certain" sure doesn't sound very comforting, does it? Let's all go borrow ourselves into prosperity, shall we? Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe is the leading early adopter... "(snip)
from



Reply With Quote



Bookmarks