Jobs report shows little growth

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has issued its May jobs/unemployment report. Little has changed from April. Unemployment 9.1%, 54,000 jobs created.

Unemployment and underemployment

Twin problems for the new college graduate are unemployment and underemployment.

Jobs created but unemployment rises

Non-fam payroll added 244,000 jobs in April, but the unemployment rate edged up to 9%.

McJobs

McDonald's has announced it plans to hire an additional 50,000 employees. It also said it intended to gentrify the pejorative term "McJobs" making it mean something better than low wage no benefit work.

Unemployment drops to lowest level in almost 2 years

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monthly employment report notes joblessness declined to 8.9% in February, with a net job creation of 192,000 jobs despite heavy cuts in state and local government employment due to state budget shortfalls. The WaPo story is here.

Unemployment rises

Despite a gain of 39000 jobs, the unemployment rate in November rose to 9.8% (up from October's 9.6%).

Jobs report a little BTE

The August unemployment situation (9.6%) is little changed from the previous month (9.5%), but the expectations game was for the figures to be worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its August unemployment report today. It shows a net loss of 54,000 jobs, the loss resulting from the discontinuation of 114,000 temporary census jobs which offset stronger than expected private sector increases (67,000).

CBO says ARRA improved economy

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has issued a report on the effect of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (ARRA), and the news is surprisingly good given the the bashing it has taken. Here is the table from page 8.

Unemployment declines, sort of

Unemployment dropped from 10 % to 9.7% according to figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bad news, almost all of the decline is attributable to the removal of 378,000 persons for the category "unemployed due to job loss" into the category "Permanent job losers."

December unemployment remains at 10%

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released December unemployment figures this morning. The economy shed 85,000 non-farm jobs. The total number of unemployed persons was 5.3 million, nearly twice the 7.7 million unemployed in December of 2007. An eye-popping 6.1 million Americans have been unemployed more than 27 months.