From the WSJ.com:
The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.3% in July and a broader measure ticked up to 15%, even as the economy added 163,000 jobs.
Why the increase?
The key reason is because the two numbers come from separate reports. The number of jobs added — the 163,000 figure — comes from a survey of business, while the unemployment rate comes from a survey of U.S. households.... the household survey was telling a darker tale than the poll of establishments...
150,000 people left the labor force, lowering what is known as the participation rate...
A further worrying sign came in the count of persons counted as employed, which fell by 195,000 last month.
Meanwhile, the broader unemployment rate, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, was up to 15% in July....
In July, the increase in the U-6 rate was driven by a jump in both the number of part-time workers who would prefer a full-time job and the number of discouraged workers.
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Link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/08/03/why-did-unemployment-rate-increase/
Friday, August 3, 2012
Thursday, August 2, 2012
U.S. recovery weakest in the world since 1970
From James Pethokoukis blogging at AEI-ideas.org :
The Obama administration says one reason the U.S. economic recovery has been so slow is that it is still suffering from the aftermath of the financial crisis. But the U.S. is not the first country to suffer a recession and a financial crisis. And the U.S. recovery is doing worse than all of them.
In a new research note, JPMorgan points out that since 1970, Japan, Finland and Sweden have all gone through what the U.S. is currently going through. And all three of them had recoveries stronger than America’s....
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Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/u-s-recovery-weakest-of-any-in-the-world-since-1970/
The Obama administration says one reason the U.S. economic recovery has been so slow is that it is still suffering from the aftermath of the financial crisis. But the U.S. is not the first country to suffer a recession and a financial crisis. And the U.S. recovery is doing worse than all of them.
In a new research note, JPMorgan points out that since 1970, Japan, Finland and Sweden have all gone through what the U.S. is currently going through. And all three of them had recoveries stronger than America’s....
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Link: http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/u-s-recovery-weakest-of-any-in-the-world-since-1970/
Under-Employment rate much, much worse
From the Real Time Economics blog at the WSJ.com:
While it’s the government’s unemployment rate that moves headlines every month — the latest, for July, comes out Friday — the “under-employment” rate, or “U-6” rate, includes everyone else affected by the moribund job market: people who want to work but haven’t looked in the last four weeks because they figured no jobs were available and those working part-time gigs but would prefer full-time positions.
(By the way, the government’s number-crunchers prefer “four-quarter moving averages” when it comes to state data because of it’s smaller sample size. By taking in longer time spans, the government may boost the reliability of the findings.)....
Michigan (4 quarter average)
Unemployment: 9.4%
UNDER-employment: 17.4%
Difference: + 8.0
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Link: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/lau/stalt.htm
While it’s the government’s unemployment rate that moves headlines every month — the latest, for July, comes out Friday — the “under-employment” rate, or “U-6” rate, includes everyone else affected by the moribund job market: people who want to work but haven’t looked in the last four weeks because they figured no jobs were available and those working part-time gigs but would prefer full-time positions.
(By the way, the government’s number-crunchers prefer “four-quarter moving averages” when it comes to state data because of it’s smaller sample size. By taking in longer time spans, the government may boost the reliability of the findings.)....
Michigan (4 quarter average)
Unemployment: 9.4%
UNDER-employment: 17.4%
Difference: + 8.0
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Link: http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/lau/stalt.htm
Weak Labor Report Fans Fears
From online.WSJ.com:
U.S. employers added 80,000 jobs in June, barely better than the 77,000 they added in May. The monthly report from the Labor Department provided the clearest evidence yet that job growth has slowed sharply from earlier this year. The U.S. gained just 225,000 jobs in the past three months combined, making it the weakest quarter of job growth since the labor market began to recover in 2010. The unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2%.
The report echoes recent data that suggest the U.S. economy is losing steam. This week, the Institute for Supply Management said the manufacturing sector contracted in June for the first time since the first month of the recovery in July 2009. ...
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Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303962304577510461710030258.html
U.S. employers added 80,000 jobs in June, barely better than the 77,000 they added in May. The monthly report from the Labor Department provided the clearest evidence yet that job growth has slowed sharply from earlier this year. The U.S. gained just 225,000 jobs in the past three months combined, making it the weakest quarter of job growth since the labor market began to recover in 2010. The unemployment rate remained stuck at 8.2%.
The report echoes recent data that suggest the U.S. economy is losing steam. This week, the Institute for Supply Management said the manufacturing sector contracted in June for the first time since the first month of the recovery in July 2009. ...
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Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303962304577510461710030258.html
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