The December unemployment report seems like nothing but good news. The official unemployment rate did not change and is 5.0%. The ranks of employed swelled and those not in the labor force shrank. The labor participate rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point to stand at a still very low 62.6%. Overall, this month's CPS report belies some of the other ominous economic news.
The BLS JOLTS report shows very high job openings, just slightly down from September. Actual hiring overall did improve slightly from the previous month and is finally just barely at prerecession levels.
The November unemployment report is another OK type of report. Less people were dropped out of the labor force for the month and the labor participation rate did tick up a tenth of a percentage point from the October 1977 record low. The official unemployment rate did not change and is 5.0%. Overall, this month's report is on the positive side.
The October unemployment report is a pleasant surprise in comparison to recent months. Less people were dropped out of the labor force for the month, a welcome change. The labor participation rate though did not change from the October 1977 record lows. The official unemployment rate did tick down a tenth of a percentage point to 5.0%. Overall, this month's report is a surprise on the positive side.
The September unemployment report is really a disaster. Yet another 579,000 people dropped out of the labor force. The labor participation rate dropped to record lows not seen since October 1977. That's 38 years ago. Even more disturbing is how the unemployment rate is really undermined as a reading on the state of labor. The official unemployment rate did not change at all and remained at 5.1%.
The BLS JOLTS report shows once again record high job openings. While Wall Street cheers and proclaims the long bad jobs market over, not so fast. Actual hiring still has not recovered to even the 2007 prerecession levels. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 1.4 official unemployed per job opening for July 2015.
The August unemployment report shows steady as she goes sorts of statistics. Yet, the report is really a mixed bag. The unemployment rate dropped two tenths of a percentage point to be 5.1%. The labor participation rate remained the same, 62.6%, and hasn't changed for three months. Once again over a quarter of a million people dropped out of the labor force.
The July employment report shows almost the same results as last month. The unemployment rate remained the same, 5.3%. The labor participation rate also did not change from the 62.6% low. More people dropped out of the labor force than became employed. While 144,000 dropped out of the labor force, only 101 thousand more became employed.
The DOL reported people filing for initial unemployment insurance benefits in the week ending on July 18th, 2015 was 255,000, a 26,000 decrease from the previous week of 281,000. The DOL proclaims this is the largest drop since November 24th, 1973, when initial claims was 233,000. The DOL also states this is no statistical anomaly. Graphed below is initial claims.
The June employment report brings some OMG, jaw dropping, are you kidding me numbers. Over 640,000 dropped out of the labor force. As a result, the unemployment rate declined two tenths of a percentage point to 5.3%. The labor participation rate dropped by -0.3 percentage points to 62.6%. This new low of a labor participation rate has not seen since October 1977 when women and minorities were still were not in the workforce extensively.
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