Sunday, October 7, 2012

Employment Report +114 [ less than working-age pop growth in survey- yet unemployment decreased! ]

market-ticker.org ^ | Oct 6 2012 | market-ticker.org

Look what we have here!

The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries.
This is rather amusing; +114,000 is fewer than the working-age population growth in the household survey (206,000) and yet unemployment decreased.
Huh?
The household survey's unadjusted numbers, however, show some rather interesting figures, none of which make sense. "Not in labor force" increased by 386,000 while "employed" increased by 775,000 a net change off "unemployed and looking" of well north of a million people!

Overall we're adding jobs, but not enough to cover the additions to the workforce. And while the unemployment rate decreased a big part of it came from those who gave up, which is a false number, but heh, who's counting, right?

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