January jobs report: good headline growth, mostly negative internals. UPDATE: THE BOSSES GAVE THEMSELVES A RAISE HEADLINES: +200,000 jobs added U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1% U6 underemployment rate rose 0.1% from 8.1% to 8.2% Here are the headlines on wages and the chronic heightened underemployment: Wages and participation rates Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now: declined -137,000 from 5.308 million to 5.171 million Part time for economic reasons: rose +74,000 from 4.915 million to 4.989 million Employment/population ratio ages 25-54: fell -0.1% from 79.1% to 79.0% Average Weekly Earnings for Production and Nonsupervisory Personnel: rose +$.0.03 from .31 to .34, up +2.4% YoY. (Note: you may be reading different information about
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January jobs report: good headline growth, mostly negative internals. UPDATE: THE BOSSES GAVE THEMSELVES A RAISE
- +200,000 jobs added
- U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 4.1%
- U6 underemployment rate rose 0.1% from 8.1% to 8.2%
- Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now: declined -137,000 from 5.308 million to 5.171 million
- Part time for economic reasons: rose +74,000 from 4.915 million to 4.989 million
- Employment/population ratio ages 25-54: fell -0.1% from 79.1% to 79.0%
- Average Weekly Earnings for Production and Nonsupervisory Personnel: rose +$.0.03 from $22.31 to $22.34, up +2.4% YoY. (Note: you may be reading different information about wages elsewhere. They are citing average wages for all private workers. I use wages for nonsupervisory personnel, to come closer to the situation for ordinary workers.)
Trump specifically campaigned on bringing back manufacturing and mining jobs. Is he keeping this promise?
- Manufacturing jobs rose by +15,000 for an average of +17,300 a month vs. the last seven years of Obama’s presidency in which an average of 10,300 manufacturing jobs were added each month.
- Coal mining jobs increased by 100 for an average of -46 a month vs. the last seven years of Obama’s presidency in which an average of -300 jobs were lost each month
November was revised downward by -36,000. December was revised upward by +12,000, for a net change of -24,000.
- the average manufacturing workweek fell -0.2 hour from 40.8 hours to 40.6 hours. This is one of the 10 components of the LEI.
- construction jobs increased by 36,000. YoY construction jobs are up +226,000.
- temporary jobs increased by +1,800.
- the number of people unemployed for 5 weeks or less increased by +45,000 from 2,235,000 to 2,280,000. The post-recession low was set over two years ago at 2,095,000.
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- Overtime was unchanged at 3.5 hours.
- Professional and business employment (generally higher- paying jobs) increased by +23,000 and is up +448,000 YoY.
- the index of aggregate hours worked in the economy rose by +0.2%.
- the index of aggregate payrolls rose by +0.4% .
- the alternate jobs number contained in the more volatile household survey increased by +409,000 jobs. This represents an increase of 2,354,000 jobs YoY vs. 2,114,000 in the establishment survey.
- Government jobs rose by 4,000.
- the overall employment to population ratio for all ages 16 and up is unchanged at 60. m/m and is up + 0.2% YoY.
- The labor force participation rate is unchanged at 62.7 m/m and is down -0.2% YoY at 62.7%
So while we have a recent increase in employment growth, most of the other measures are either tepid or are fraying a little bit around the edges.
UPDATE: I see where the main item in most other discussions in this report is “the big jump in wages!
Ummm, not so fast. The “big raise” of 2.9% YoY is for ALL employees, including the bosses. The number for workers who aren’t managers, as I report above, is a tepid 2.4%, right about where it has been for several years. So it workers got 2.4% YoY, but workers plus bosses got 2.9% YoY, then that means the bosses gave themselves big fat raises that have not been shared with the line workers.
I’m not impressed.