Friday, September 7, 2012

Employment numbers

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation Summary posted. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 96,000 in August, and the unemployment rate edged down to 8.1%. This is weaker than last month, which suggests that the economy is slowing down.
Participation rate fell from 63.7 to 63.5%, meaning that the number of people not in the labor force edged up. The employment-population ratio fell from 58.4 to 58.3%, as shown below.
Note that while the employment-population ratio has been flat since the last recession, the previous boom (the Bush housing bubble) was so weak that the ratio never topped the previous peak (the Clinton dot.com bubble one).

1 comment:

  1. Exactly the same story in Australia.

    “Labour figures don’t reveal all”, by Tim Colebatch. September 7, 2012
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/labour-figures-dont-reveal-all-20120906-25h76.html

    ReplyDelete

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