Highlights (lowlights?) :-
"But payroll growth was anaemic, wages dropped and more discouraged workers headed for the sidelines, continuing the slowest job-market recovery since World War II."
"Employers added just 162,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in July, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, down from 188,000 in June, which was revised lower from an initial reading of 195,000. Together, revisions to May and June figures subtracted 26,000 jobs from payrolls, another sign of weakness."
"The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell in part because 37,000 workers dropped out of the labor force, meaning they gave up looking for work. The labor-force participation rate, which measures the percentage of working-age Americans who are working or looking for work, fell to 63.4 percent in July, near a 35-year low.
The civilian employment-population ratio, which measures how many working-age Americans actually have jobs, was flat at 58.7 percent, near the lowest in 30 years and down from more than 63 percent before the recession."
N.B. the author has made a mistake here - the actual number of people who gave up looking for work was 241,000 people in July - see below.
The author corrects himself in the next sentence - the labor participation rate is now 58.7%
"Average hourly wages fell 0.1 percent in July and are up just 1.9 percent in the past year, barely enough to keep up with inflation. The majority of the jobs that have been created during the recovery have been low-paying jobs, worsening income inequality and keeping the economy sluggish.
The author corrects himself in the next sentence - the labor participation rate is now 58.7%
"Really we have become a nation of hamburger flippers, Wal-Mart sales associates, barmaids, checkout people and other people working at very low wages," Daniel Alpert, managing partner of New York investment bank Westwood Capital, told Yahoo Finance's Daily Ticker. That's why job growth is "not increasing consumption or the ability to go out and buy stuff."
Again a mistake by the author, real inflation is between 6 and 9% not the official 1 to 2% quoted by the author.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/02/july-jobs-report-unemployment-rate_n_3690424.htmlBut the article fails to mention a lot of what is wrong with the U.S. labor market.
Some of the information that was neglected to be mentioned :-
The pace of jobs growth quoted - 192,000 a month is taken from the Establishment Survey.
It includes :-
500,000 jobs where people have taken a second or third poorly paid part time job
An over estimate of around 120,000 jobs due to miscalculations in the BLS Birth/Death model.
The REAL pace of jobs growth is around 100,000 a month.
Far short of the pace of jobs growth required to keep pace with population growth - which is around 180,000 a month.
Large numbers of the working age population are dropping out of the civilian labor pool, because decent paying jobs just aren't out there.
Increasingly Households are moving from two income households to single income.
Since the start of 2009 :-
There are 4.5 million more people over 54 with a job - increasing numbers of people can no longer retire early.
There are 2.5 million LESS people working in the 16 to 54 age group.
They cannot find jobs.
The situation is particularly dire for new jobs in the key 34 to 54 age group.
This is the age group where people generally earn the most money.
The civilian population of working age increased by 204,000 people in July.
The number of people in the civilian labor pool DECLINED by 37,000 people.
Source BLS Household survey.
From this we can calculate that the number of people of working age who stopped looking for work because decent paying jobs just aren't out there was 241,000 people in July.
Jobs by age range :-
Zero jobs added for those between 16 and 19
49,000 jobs added for people between 20 to 24 (this includes recent college graduates)
15,000 jobs were added for people between 25 and 54 (the highest earning age group)
96,000 jobs added for people aged 55+
The dramatic rise over the last 15 years in the number of people over 54 that are now working
Source St Louis Fed
The number of people graduating from college and entering the labor force is in the ball park of 3.5 million people in 2013.
This takes account of people going onto Masters and PhD courses.
It also takes account of the current 40% drop out rate.
Only 49,000 of these people seem to have started work so far.
We can assume that a very large number of the class of 2013 are now looking for work and will show up in the jobs and unemployment numbers over the next 2 months.
The article also fails to mention that most of the jobs created are low paid or part time jobs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/business/majority-of-new-jobs-pay-low-wages-study-finds.html?_r=0
The situation has got worse since this article was published a year ago.
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