Economy > Survey Results
Latest Employment Report a Mix of Good and Bad (But Mostly Good) News
- March 5th, 2010
- 8 Comments
Anyone else looking forward to the day we can say that we’re actually out of the woods with the current financial crisis (if only so we can put a moratorium on the phrase “out of the woods”)?
Well, we might have to hold out a little while longer, because as the latest employment report indicates, we’re, um…well, you know. Today, the Labor Department released its Employment Situation report for the month of February, and, as is often the case lately, there’s both good news and bad news.
The good news is that the number of jobs in February fell far below analysts’ expectations and that the unemployment rate did not go up. Despite this fact, the bad news, of course, is that unemployment is still at a remarkably high 9.7 percent and that employers cut 36,000 jobs.
Among the highlights of the report:
- Employers cut 36,000 jobs in February (below analysts’ expectation of 50,000), compared with 26,000 jobs shed in January.
- Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed Americans has nearly doubled to 14.9 million and the economy has shed 8.4 million jobs.
- The U.S. unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February, and nonfarm payroll employment dipped slightly (-36,000).
- Severe winter weather in parts of the country may have affected payroll employment and hours; however, it is not possible to quantify precisely the net impact of the winter storms on these measures.
- Looking at various industries: Temporary help services added 48,000 jobs, while Health Care also continued to trend upward in February. Construction and Information both fell, at 64,000 and 18,000 jobs lost, respectively, while both Manufacturing and Retail were essentially unchanged.
Despite the up-and-down numbers over the last few months (36,000 jobs shed in February…26,000 shed in January…109,000 shed in December… 64,000 added in November, etc.), conditions are stabilizing overall.
“The large declines are behind us,” said Joel Naroff of Joel Naroff Economic Advisors in a podcast interview with MarketWatch today, in reference to the job loss numbers. Naroff added that the latest report gives a strong indication that, while we may not see strong job growth anytime soon, we will see positive growth.
In fact, employers are expected to add as many as 100,000 jobs a month later this year (and if President Obama okays the House’s new $15 billion plan to offer tax breaks to employers, it could further impact job growth in the coming months).
Thoughts?
About Mary Lorenz
Mary is a copywriter for CareerBuilder, specializing in B2B marketing and corporate recruiting best practices and social media. In addition to creating copy for corporate advertising and marketing campaigns, she researches and writes about employee attraction, engagement and retention. Whenever possible, she makes references to pop culture. Sometimes, those references are even relevant. A New Orleans native, Mary now lives in Chicago, right down the street from the best sushi place in the city. It's awesome.
These figures don't include the number of people whoms unemployment has run out, given up and living on the street, shelters or have been forced to boomerang back to family homes.
If on this end of the spectrum, things are not looking up.
Just to satisfy normal growth in the labor force, this economy needs to generate 150,000 new jobs per month. While the heavy bleeding has stopped, we are nowhere near a healthy job market.
It will be a very slow recovery, because the currently-lower participation rate is sure to increase as hiring improves. Just 3 years ago there were only 1.7 unemployed for every job posting; today there are more than 5. It will remain a tough game of musical chairs for some time.
These figures don't include the number of people whoms unemployment has run out, given up and living on the street, shelters or have been forced to boomerang back to family homes.
If on this end of the spectrum, things are not looking up.
Just to satisfy normal growth in the labor force, this economy needs to generate 150,000 new jobs per month. While the heavy bleeding has stopped, we are nowhere near a healthy job market.
It will be a very slow recovery, because the currently-lower participation rate is sure to increase as hiring improves. Just 3 years ago there were only 1.7 unemployed for every job posting; today there are more than 5. It will remain a tough game of musical chairs for some time.
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[...] We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]
[...] We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]
[...] We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]
[...] We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]
[...] February job numbers redux 6. March 2010 | work buzz | Permalink We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]
[...] We’ve been a little crazed here at TheWorkBuzz lately and just realized the day has passed without posting our regular breakdown of the BLS’s monthly unemployment numbers. Luckily, our colleagues at TheHiringSite.com have already written about that very subject so we’ll refer you to their post. [...]