Get A Job

Be here now. Go there later. AP (07.13.10), via Eschaton:

Job openings dropped in May from the previous month and layoffs edged up, fresh evidence that employers are reluctant to add workers."

"Job openings drop in May as hiring stays weak

"The department's report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, illustrates how competitive the job market is. There were about 4.7 unemployed people, on average, for each job opening in May."

Ya wonder if this has anything to do with the number of unemployed folks out there? Ya think?

Naw, they're just lazy, shiftless ingrates, is all.

Then again, maybe it's those chickenshit bankers: "One reason hiring is weak is that small businesses, which create about 60 percent of new jobs, are having trouble getting the credit they need to expand and hire more workers."

UPDATE: Another one of them pesky graphs. This fact-based stuff is getting rather tedious, eh?

UPDATED UPDATE: You can only get just so compassionate.

Fuck 'Em

They're all just a bunch of lazy bastards anyway, right?

George, The Incompetent

Miss him yet? National Journal (05.15.10), via The Washington Monthly:

"If the economy produces jobs over the next eight months at the same pace as it did over the past four months, the nation will have created more jobs in 2010 alone than it did over the entire eight years of George W. Bush's presidency."

Repairing The Job Machine

Check it out.

As Steve notes, "If job growth holds steady the rest of this year -- by no means a certainty, of course -- the U.S. economy will create a net gain of about 1.7 million jobs. From start to finish, the net gain under Bush was about 1 million."

Which gives you an idea of just how fucking incompetent that man and his Administration was.

We're In The Money

Well maybe not everyone. AP (04.03.08):

"The number of new people signing up for unemployment benefits last week shot up to the highest level in more than two years, fresh evidence of the damage to a national economy clobbered by housing, credit and financial crises.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance jumped by a seasonally adjusted 38,000 to 407,000 for the week ending March 29."

Jobless Claims Hit 2-Year High

"The increase left claims at their highest point since Sept. 17, 2005."

For what it's worth, as of February, 2008, the average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers was (in constant 1982 dollars) $8.28. Which is exactly what it was in October, 2003.

Why does George Soros hate America? Bloomberg (04.03.08):

"Billionaire George Soros called the current financial crisis the worst since the Great Depression and said markets will fall more this year after a brief rebound."

Soros Sees Additional Market Declines After Temporary Reprieve

Why might George be worried? "Credit default swaps -- a way to bet on the creditworthiness of a company -- may be the next crisis area because the market is unregulated, and it's impossible to know whether counterparties can meet their obligations in the event of a bond default. The market has a notional value of about $45 trillion -- or about half the total wealth of U.S. households."

And if that shitpile slides South folks, we're all fucked.

Get A Job

NYTimes (11.02.07), via The Big Picture:

"[Last week's] employment report is mediocre at best. But to understand that, you have to look past the headline numbers.

Those numbers say that the government’s survey of employers showed a gain of 130,000 private sector jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis, in October. That seems to be better than in recent months.

I don’t believe it."

Making Up Jobs

"Most of those jobs — 103,000 of them, before seasonal adjustment — were added by the statisticians, not reported by employers. (It should be noted that, before seasonal adjustment, there were 201,000 jobs added, so this is just more than half.)"

"Why add jobs? It is an effort to include jobs created by new companies not surveyed, less an estimate for jobs lost at companies that went out of busjiness and therefore did not respond to the survey."

Welcome to the CES Net Birth/Death Model.

"Of those 103,000 jobs, 14,000 were in the construction industry, and 25,000 were in finance. Does anyone believe that all those new companies are being created in those industries now?"

As Barry notes, 80% percent of the new jobs reported were attributable to these statistical adjustments. Meaning they weren't "real" jobs.

Get A Job

A rude surprise. The biggest jump since last February. AP (10.18.07):

"The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits shot up by the largest amount since early February, a far bigger increase than had been expected.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for jobless benefits hit 337,000 last week, an increase of 28,000 from the previous week."

Jobless Claims Rise Sharply

The smart guys had been figuring a number of around 314,000.

Uh Oh

AP (09.07.07):

"Employers sliced payrolls by 4,000 in August, the first drop in four years, a stark sign that a painful credit crunch that has unnerved Wall Street is putting a strain on the national economy."

Employers Cut Jobs in August

The unemployment rate "held steady at 4.6 percent, mainly because hundreds of thousands of people left the work force for any number of reasons."

The losses were "in construction, manufacturing, transportation and government...."

Consensus had been for an increase of 100,000 to 110,000. Kinda missed it, eh?

Bloomberg (09.07.07):

"Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News had forecast that payrolls rose 100,000 during the month, according to the median of 88 estimates, compared with an originally reported 92,000 gain in July.

None of the analysts foresaw a decline, as predictions ranged from 35,000 to 140,000.

Bloomberg.com: U.S.

The numbers for June and July were also revised downward by 81,000.