The Jab…I Mean…Job Report is Here

Posted on | July 3, 2008 | No Comments

The numbers are in and the June Job Report is…not great.  The best news is that the unemployment rate held steady at the prior month’s sickening rate of 5.5%.

From there, the news gets progressively worse.  I’ll start with the worst news.  The worst news is that the April and May reports have been revised so that, while they only appeared discouraging back when, they are now downright depressing.

In April, the Department of Labor (DOL) reported 28,000 job losses.  That number’s been revised to a whopping 67,000 losses.  In May, they reported 49,000 job losses. That’s been revised to an eye-gouging 62,000 losses.

For June, the DOL reports 62,000 job losses (to be revised to 82,000?).  The losses were heaviest in construction, manufacturing and employment services (mainly temporary help services).  These sectors lost 43,000, 33,000 and 59,000 jobs, respectively.

While the number of persons unemployed was little changed, the duration of unemployment increased with the average person being unemployed for 17.5 weeks (up from 16.6 in May).

Fortunately, there were a few kernals of positivity in the report.  Please read and digest these precious nibblets slowly.

POSITIVE NEWS FROM THE JUNE JAB JOB REPORT

• General merchandise stores posted a gain of 9,000 jobs (though the rest of retail is flat)
• The mining industry added 8,000 jobs
• The health care industry (boosted by the health care services sector) added 15,000 jobs
• Food services added 16,000 jobs
• Education services gained 15,000 jobs
• Government (federal and local) gained 29,000 jobs
• Leisure and hospitality gained 24,000 jobs
• And, the average hourly rate of nonsupervisory, non-farm workers rose by 6 cents to $18.01.

Hear
this post

Related Posts

• Nearly 500,000 Unemployment Claims…And Counting!
• Unemployment Inching Downward, Economic Outlook Looking Up
• Unemployment Catapults to 7.6%, But a Few Sectors Still Hiring
• September Jobs Report: 159,000 Jobs Lost
• States With More Jobs Than Unemployed People

Comments