Shallow Reporting

 

 

 

"All the news that is fit to print (not!)..."

 

I have some great news, although if you have been listening to the media, you probably already heard it. The stock market is going crazy based on this good news. In June, we created 195,000 jobs (unless that number gets revised down next month). That is good news, right? Maybe. However, since the media refuses to "peel back the onion", I will.

To get the best possible information, I went straight to the horses mouth - the government. Specifically, I went to the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) website.

• The number of unemployed persons remained at 11.8 million, and the unemployment rate remained, at 7.6 percent, unchanged from the previous month. My comment - since the number of unemployed stayed the same at 11.8M, the number of jobs lost and the number of jobs gained must have been the same.
• The unemployment rate for adult women (6.8 percent) edged up in June, while the rates for adult men (7.0 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent), whites (6.6 percent), blacks (13.7 percent), and Hispanics (9.1 percent) showed little or no change. My comment - are we okay with one out of four teenagers not able to find work; 1 out of 10 Hispanics not able to find work; 1 out of 8 blacks not being able to find work? Not reported here is the unemployment rate for black teenagers. It is over 40%.
• In June, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was essentially unchanged at 4.3 million. These individuals accounted for 36.7 percent of the unemployed. However, over the past 12 months, the number of long-term unemployed has declined by 1.0 million. My comment - some good news looking at the gains from last year.
• The civilian labor force participation rate, at 63.5 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 58.7 percent, changed little in June. Over the year, the labor force participation rate is down by 0.3 percentage point. My comment - not good, not good at all. 37% of people that could or should be working are not. In addition, the percentage has worsened (slightly) over the past year. The rate of 63.5% is still near a historic low.
• The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 322,000 to 8.2 million in June. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. My comment - wow! This is huge! Bet nobody saw this one in the paper! ObamaCare, anyone?
• In June, 2.6 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. My comment - interesting statistic. Not widely reported, but should be. 2.6M is a whole lot of people.
• In June, leisure and hospitality added 75,000 jobs in June. Monthly job growth in this industry has averaged 55,000 thus far in 2013, almost twice the average gain of 30,000 per month in 2012. Also, Retail trade employment increased by 37,000. My comment - bingo! Here is a good example of the new jobs being created. Almost 60% of the new jobs created are seasonal and lower paying.

 

There is more on the website, but I will stop here. My point is simply this - there is much more to the employment story than is being reported by the media. Our economy is still sick, and the doctor is out. Worse than that, when the doctor is in, he often just votes "present" on this most important issue.