The economy added 96,000 workers last month following a revised 141,000 rise in July that was smaller than initially estimated according to the Labor Department. The median estimate of economists was for a gain of 130,000. Unemployment unexpectedly fell to 8.1 percent. U6 unemployment fell to 14.70%.
Are we better off than we were at the beginning of recovery summer 2010? Yes and no. The number of people that are unemployed has fallen by 2 million, but we have added over 2 million people to disability.
A closer look at the numbers reveals that the civilian labor force FELL in August by -368,000. Ah, our civilian labor forced declined resulting in a decline in the unemployment rate of the survivors declined. That is, the decline in unemployment was less than the decline in the labor force.
What is interesting about this chart is the growth in the civilian labor force (green) under President Bush, but the growth in the labor force since 2009 has been much slower.
So, this was a disappointing jobs report. I hope The Fed didn’t notice!
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