Friday, August 1, 2008

Employment Report Stinks

From the BLS:

Both the number of unemployed persons (8.8 million) and the unemployment rate (5.7 percent) rose in July. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 1.6 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.0 percentage point.


Great news, huh? It gets better...

In July, the number of persons who worked part time for economic reasons rose by 308,000 to 5.7 million and has risen by 1.4 million over the past 12 months. This category includes persons who indicated that they would like to work full time but were working part time because their hours had been cut back or they were unable to find full-time jobs.


So, instead of getting fired, we'll just get people to work less. That means lower overtime payments and it also might mean a cut in benefits. however, because the overall employment situation is weak, these people have a harder to getting a second job. That means they have to make do with less pay.

There are no bright spots in the jobs created areas of the report. There are only three sectors of the job market that created jobs: government employees, healthcare/education and leisure and hospitality (which added a whopping 1,000 jobs). In other words, unless you work for the government or take care of sick people you're out of luck.

And the year over year number continued to drop:



And the unemployment rate continues to increase: