Saturday, September 7, 2013

Quality Of August Jobs Added: Absolutely Abysmal

While we already have the quantiative components of today's jobs number (horrendous), here is the qualitative breakdown. For the time constrained readers we will jump to the conclusion: absolutely abysmal, to a degree perhaps not seen in years.
Of the 169K jobs added, the vast majority, some 144K or 85% of the entire August gain, consisted of the lowest paying jobs possible:
  • +44K jobs added in Retail Trade
  • +43K added in Education and Health
  • +27K added in Leisure and Hospitality
  • +17K added in Government (looks like sequester effect has finally "tapered")
  • +13K added in Temp Help services
But at least they are full-time "lowest paying jobs" possible. If there was one silver lining in today's jobs report it is that Full Time jobs added finally surpassed the Part-Time jobs, which actually declined.
Elsewhere, for those still confused by the Beige Book's idiotic proclamation that there are construction worker shortages, don't tell the BLS: the number of jobs added in the Construction secotr: 0. Narrowing it down to just construction jobs of residential buildings, the number was down 3.9K. So much for that lie.
As for the two highest paying job categories: Financial Services and Information? -5,000 and -18,000 respectively.
Some recovery.

No comments:

Post a Comment