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May 02, 2008
Good job numbers ... maybe
Compared to last month, today's employment numbers are good news. BLS announced that nonfarm payroll employment where "little changed" with a decline of only 20,000 and that the unemployment rate actually declined to 5.0% in April. As the New York Times (U.S. Sheds Fewer Jobs Than Expected) reports:
Economists had been bracing for a decline of up to 85,000 jobs, in line with the rate of losses over the first three months of the year. Instead, the Labor Department reported that the services sector recorded a surge of new jobs in April.
The Wall Street Journal summarizes the
According to Friday's report, hiring last month in goods-producing industries fell 110,000. Within this group, manufacturing firms cut 46,000 jobs. The sector has lost jobs every month for almost two years.
Construction employment was down by 61,000, the 10th-straight drop and largest since February 2007. Residential building bore the brunt of the decline, but nonresidential construction jobs fell as well, suggesting that the housing slump is broadening.
Service-sector employment rose 90,000 in April after growing just 8,000 in total during the first quarter. Business and professional services companies added 39,000 jobs, reversing March's sharp drop, and the financial sector added jobs for the first time in nine months. Retail trade lost 26,800 payrolls.
Temporary employment, which economists consider a leading indicator for future job trends, fell by over 9,000.
Continuing a recent trend, job gains were concentrated in personal services, which tend to be more labor intensive than manufacturing and other services. Education and health services employment rose 52,000. Leisure and hospitality businesses created 18,000 new jobs. The government added 9,000 jobs.
However, the involuntary underemployed (part-time for economic reasons) increased by 300,000. This is a change from last month when the involuntary underemployed problem didn't increase as much as the general unemployment problem. There are now over 800,000 more workers who are involuntarily underemployed than there were a year ago.
This is our silent employment problem (see earlier posting).
Posted by Ken Jarboe at May 2, 2008 09:25 AM
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