AUGUST JOB NUMBERS UP, DESPITE WORKERS FILLING THE PITCH: THE DISCONNECT CONTINUES

Written by Michael Thervil

AUGUST JOB NUMBERS UP, DESPITE WORKERS FILLING THE PITCH: THE DISCONNECT CONTINUES | PHOTO BY BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

[AUGUST JOB NUMBERS] For many working Americans, although they may not have the time to read the monthly jobs report, they can most certainly feel the effects of it. While Americans have been reporting that they are feeling the rising cost of inflation in the goods and products from retailers, there appears to be some data that indicates that there could be some light at the end of the tunnel with 142,000 jobs created last month. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, August’s job report numbers show that “The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent in August, and the number of unemployed people changed little at 7.0 million.” While this may sound like good news, most of those jobs were created and filled in the food service and hospitality industries with 59,000 jobs added.

It was also reported that “Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for people who are Asian declined to 3.2 percent in August. The rate for teenagers edged up to 14.1 percent over the month, mostly offsetting a decline in the prior month. The jobless rates for adult men (4.0 percent), adult women (3.5 percent), and people who are White (3.7 percent), Black (6.0 percent), or Hispanic (4.8 percent) showed little change in August.”

Other metrics that were released by the BLS indicated that

“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) changed little at 1.9 million in August. The long-term unemployed accounted for 27.0 percent of all unemployed

people.”

“The labor force participation rate edged up to 61.6 percent in August but is down by 0.5 percentage point since January. The employment-population ratio, at 59.1 percent, changed little over the month and since January.”

“The number of people employed part time for economic reasons decreased by 414,000 to 4.4million in August. These individuals would have preferred full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.”

“In August, the number of people not in the labor force who currently want a job changed little at 5.7 million. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.”

“Among those not in the labor force who wanted a job, the number of people marginally attached to the labor force changed little at 1.7 million in August. These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months but had not looked for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey. The number of discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached who believed that no jobs were available for them, changed little in August at 441,000.”

While these numbers seem both impressive and counter-intuitive for many Americans, there are some Economists that are taking the position that the numbers that are printed for consumer consumption can still be out of touch with the reality of American workers. Supporting this position was the BLS finding that "In August, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 10 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $37.75." the question is how many Americans actually make $6,000 a month for a grand total of $72,000 a year? This begs the question: "Where exactly is the BLS obtaining their sample population for the generation of this month’s job’s and earning report?"

With food service and the hospitality industries being the leading drivers for job creation in the workforce, most Americans are not only settling for these jobs, but these are the types of jobs that Americans that fall into this category wish they could stray away from. This in combination with many Americans that are already working a job are having to take on a second and, in some cases, a third job to make up the difference so they can make ends meet at the end of the month.

While last month's job number appear to be “stable”, there still seems to be some kind of disconnect between workers, rising cost, and employment data.