Jobs: Employment Stinks Less In August

(MoneyWatch)  The August jobs report is out and it was better than expected. The US lost 54,000 non-farm payroll jobs, though the losses were due to 114,000 laid off census workers. The private sector created 67,000 jobs and the unemployment rate inched up to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent.


This is how bad the labor market is--a smaller-than-expected job loss number is considered a victory (one which I am happy to take, of course). The BLS should have started its press release like this: "The employment situation stinks less..."

Remember that the US economy needs to create approximately 125,000 jobs a month just to keep pace with new entrants to the work force. Analysts believe that it will take a string of consecutive 250,000+ jobs a month to really put a dent in the unemployment rate.

Still there was some good news in this report, including positive revisions to the two previous months, which added reduced previously reported job losses by 123,000 and a 323,000 drop in the long-term unemployed, bringing that total to 6.2 million. These are baby steps, but necessary ones to get us out of the unemployment hole.

Here are the highlights of the report:

• August non-farm jobs: -54K (July: -54K from -131,000, June: -175K from -221,000)
• Private Payrolls: +67K
• Census: -114,000
• Unemployment Rate: 9.6 percent
• Under-Employment Rate (marginally attached, part-time): 16.7 percent
• Unemployed persons: 14.9 million
• Average Hourly Earnings: +0.3 percent
• Av Workweek: 34.2 hrs
• Long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks and over): -323,000 to 6.2 million
• Manufacturing: -27,000
• Health Care: +28,000 (average of 20,000 per month in 2010)
• Temporary Services: +17,000
• Construction: +19,000

The big question that people keep asking is: why is it taking so long for this recovery to create jobs? The answer is that for two decades, the nation collectively went on a binge--a huge frat party where too many spent more than they earned and amassed too much debt. It's really hard to erase a two-decade party in a couple of years.

Yes, I know that not everyone participated at the party, but too many people overindulged and the goody-two-shoes who had a good time at the party (their house prices and 401 (k) plans went up), couldn't really stop the others from going too far.

When the party ended, it came to a screeching halt and there was a price to pay for all of that mayhem. A year ago, that price was steep--hundreds of thousands of jobs lost month after month, the housing market dropping like a stone, the stock market cratering...in other words, nausea and a splitting headache.

Clearly Uncle Sam should have done a better job shutting down the party sooner, but he didn't. His $700 billion TARP and $800 billion stimulus may have reduced the effects of the hangover, but today, while the jobs picture is certainly better and the stock and housing markets are more stable, we're still left with a dull ache that will persist. For the instant-gratification American culture, that diagnosis could be hard to swallow.

Image by Flickr User deanmeyersnet, CC 2.0