KnowNOW!

Global Economic Watch

Syndication

Recent Posts

Tags

View more

Other Useful Blogs

Archives

  • October Jobs Report: Unemployment now at 9.0 Percent

    The US economy added 80,000 jobs in October, according to the latest numbers released by the Department of Labor . The unemployment rate dipped down slightly, to 9.0 percent. The professional and business services and leisure and hospitality sectors led the job growth, while government employment continued to decline. Perhaps the most positive news from the report is that the number of long-term unemployed, those out of work for 27 weeks or more, dropped by 366,000 over the month. Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) decreased by 374,000 to 8.9 million in October. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In October, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, about the same as 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. Among the marginally attached, there were 967,000 discouraged workers in October, a decrease of 252,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.6 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in October had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

  • Atlanta Fed Macroblog: Charting Estimated Jobs Recovery

    On the heels of the September good-but-not-good-enough jobs report, David Altig --senior vice president and research director at the Atlanta Fed --charts how long it will take for the US economy to recover all the jobs lost since the start of the recession: The chart is from the Atlanta Fed's Macroblog , where Altig writes: Payroll employment growth has averaged about 110,000 jobs a month since February 2010, the jobs low point associated with the crisis and recession. This growth level compares, unfavorably, with the 158,000 jobs added per month during the last jobs recovery period from August 2003 (the low point following the 2001 recession) through November 2007 (the month before the recent recession began). One hundred and ten thousand jobs a month compares favorably, however, to the 96,000 job creation pace so far this year. Are these sorts of differences material? If the economy can find its way to creating jobs at the same rate as the last recovery—which nobody remembers as particularly off-the-chart spectacular—we would be back to the prerecession level of overall employment by spring 2015. If, on the other hand, we can only eke out the sub-100k pace we've seen this year, that date moves out to 2017. Altig goes on to point out that this chart is for the number of jobs, and not for the unemployment rate. With the slowest jobs recovery rate of the above chart,the unemployment rate would actually get higher, according to Altig's estimates. Read the full post here .

  • July Jobs Report: Unemployment Rate 9.1%, Small Job Gains in Private Sector Nearly Matched by Losses in Public Sector

    The unemployment rate has edged back down to 9.1%, as the US economy gained 117,000 as the US economy jobs in May, according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . The private sectors continues to add jobs. Notably, health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining led the way in hiring, while the public sector continued to lose jobs. Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged in July at 8.4 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In July, 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, little changed from a year earlier. (These 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. Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in July, about the same as a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in July had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

  • February Jobs Report: 192,000 Jobs Added

    The US economy added 192,000 jobs in February, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : The economy has created, on average, 106,000 jobs per month since February 2010. Here are some of the key data from other areas we like to track in the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involun- tary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged at 8.3 million in February. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. In February, 2.7 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, up from 2.5 million a year earlier. (These 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. Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in February, a decrease of 184,000 from a year earlier. (These data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.7 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in February had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

  • October Unemployment Report: US Economy Adds Jobs

    It looks like we had some real job growth in October. While the unemployment rate remained at 9.6%, nonfarm payroll employment went up, with an additional 151,000 jobs added during the month, according to the latest report from the Department of Labor . Here's a look at the unemployment trends from the Bureau of Labor Statistics : In some of the other areas we like to track from the monthly jobs report: The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) fell by 318,000 over the month to 9.2 million, partially offsetting large increases in the prior 2 months. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. About 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in October, up from 2.4 million 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. Among the marginally attached, there were 1.2 million discouraged workers in October, an increase of 411,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. Read the full report from the BLS here .

  • Unemployment Holds at 10%

    The Department of Labor released its first jobs report of the year this morning, and the December figures show the number of unemployed down 85,000 for the month and the rate of unemployment holding at 10.0%. The number of Americans unemployed for 27 weeks or longer-- long term unemployed --rose to 6.1 million in the month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . And an additional 2.5 million Americans are now marginally attached to the labor force --they had not searched for work in the previous four weeks and do not count in the overall unemployment numbers . That's up from 578,000 in December, 2008. Read the BLS report here .

  • Temp Help Numbers

    On Friday we looked at some of the internal data form the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment numbers. Barry Ritholtz looked deeper and found some positive signs in the Temp Help employment numbers. Not overwhelmingly positive signs, but positive nonetheless. And Ritholtz argues that temp help numbers can be a strong indicator "as to the demand for Labor and Employer confidence." Read Temporary Help is Less Bad here .

  • Mapping State by State Unemployment

    The Department of Labor has new employment figures out for May. The national unemployment rate now sits at 9.4%. That's up from 8.9% in April, and from 5.5% in May 2008. The state figures look something like this: From the Bureau of Labor Statistics release: In May, nonfarm payroll employment decreased in 39 states and increased in 11 states and the District of Columbia. The largest over-the-month decrease in the level of employment occurred in California (-68,900), followed by Florida (-61,000), Texas (-24,700), and Michigan (-23,900). Arizona and Florida experienced the largest over-the-month percentage decreases in employment (-0.8 percent each), followed by Oklahoma (-0.7 percent) and Arkansas, Kentucky, and Michigan (-0.6 percent each). The largest over-the-month increases in employment occurred in Massachusetts (4,900), Connecticut (3,600), North Dakota (3,000), and Alaska (2,900). Alaska (+0.9 percent) experienced the largest over-the-month percentage increase, followed by North Dakota (+0.8 percent) and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Mexico (+0.2 percent each). Over the year, nonfarm employment decreased in 48 states and the District of Columbia, increased in 1 state, and remained unchanged in 1 state. The largest over-the-year percentage decreases occurred in Arizona (-7.4 percent), Michigan (-7.2 percent), Nevada (-6.1 percent), Idaho (-5.5 percent), Oregon (-5.4 percent), and Florida (-5.3 percent). Only North Dakota (+1.4 percent) reported an over-the-year percentage increase, and Alaska (0.0 percent) reported no over-the-year percent-age change. Read the full release here .