UnemploymentData.com

Job losses much worse than the average recession in third consecutive monthly decline.

Today, the Labor Department reported that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) decreased by 54,000 in August — the third consecutive decline. Today’s chart puts the latest data into perspective by comparing job losses following the beginning of the current economic recession (solid red line) to that of the last recession (dashed gold line) and the average recession from 1950-1999 (dashed blue line). As today’s chart illustrates, the current job market has suffered losses that are more than triple as much as what occurs at the lows of the average recession/job loss cycle. Also, today’s decline in jobs provides further evidence that the current ‘economic recovery’ remains sluggish at best.

Chart courtesy of Chart of the Day

From The Bureau of Labor Statistics

Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 1.8 percent for the 12-month period ending June 2010 while the overall inflation rate (CPI-U) was only 1.05%. This was the same Compensation cost increase as the 12-month period ending in June 2009. Wages and salaries increased 1.6 percent for the current 12-month period, compared to a 1.8 percent increase for the 12-month period ending in June 2009. Benefit costs rose 2.5 percent, up from a 1.8 percent increase for the 12-month period ending June 2009.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back in 1963  Bob Dylan wrote

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Those lyrics seem eerily appropriate almost fifty years later.

In that time many things have changed, change seemed rapid and incessant. Over the years the way we work has also changed. Back in the 1960′s the U.S. was primarily made up of Blue collar workers.  Now we are increasingly white collar tellecommuters.

A recent special report in Time magazine entitled “The Way We’ll Work” explained the work situation in this way:

Ten years ago, Facebook didn’t exist. Ten years before that, we didn’t have the Web. So who knows what jobs will be born a decade from now? Though unemployment is at a 25-year high, work will eventually return. But it won’t look the same. No one is going to pay you just to show up. We will see a more flexible, more freelance, more collaborative and far less secure work world. It will be run by a generation with new values — and women will increasingly be at the controls.

By Neil Irwin–
Washington Post.com

The nation’s unemployment rate fell in June, though hiring by the private sector remained soft, according to a government report Friday. The figures suggest the economic recovery is moving forward this summer, but with weak momentum in the job market.

The jobless rate was 9.5 percent last month, down from 9.7 percent in May, a surprising decrease that came as hundreds of thousands of workers dropped out of the labor force. Private employers added 83,000 jobs in June, more than double the rate in May but still below the six-figure job creation numbers that would suggest a strong recovery in employment.

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Job Security May Not Be What It Used To Be for Some Government Positions

By Robert Jay

• 61 percent of Americans “always or usually” live paycheck to paycheck, which was up from 49 percent in 2008 and 43 percent in 2007.
• 66 percent of the income growth between 2001 and 2007 went to the top 1% of all Americans.
• 24 percent of American workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age in the past year.
• Only the top 5 percent of U.S. households have earned enough additional income to match the rise in housing costs since 1975.
• Average Wall Street bonuses for 2009 were up 17 percent when compared with 2008.
• In the United States, the average federal worker now earns 60% MORE than the average worker in the private sector.

WASHINGTON — New jobless claims in the U.S. jumped last week by the most since February, reversing a sharp fall two weeks ago. The rise is partly a result of seasonal factors but also reflects the job

The Labor Department says new claims for unemployment insurance jumped by 37,000 to a seasonally adjusted 464,000. Analysts expected a smaller rise, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

The sharp increase comes after claims fell steeply two weeks ago to their lowest level since August 2008. But much of that drop was driven by temporary seasonal factors and not necessarily by an improving job market.

Two weeks ago, General Motors and other manufacturers reported fewer temporary layoffs than usual this time of year, the Labor Department says.

FOX News reported the following:

WASHINGTON — A wave of federal census layoffs cut U.S. payrolls in June for the first time in six months, while private employers added a modest number of jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 9.5 percent, its lowest level in almost a year.

Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since last October, the Labor Department said Friday. The loss was driven by the end of 225,000 temporary jobs for the 2010 U.S. Census. Businesses added a net total of 83,000 workers, an improvement from May. But that’s also below March and April totals.

The country has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began. Read the rest of this entry »

by Jon Herring

Editor-  In the following article John Herring explains how the current “Cap and Trade” bill might affect the Unemployment rate plus how you might benefit.

In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson proposed legislation which became known as “The War on Poverty.” Five years later, Richard Nixon, introduced “The War on Drugs.”

And what do we have to show for these brilliant government initiatives, 40 years later? Not much, besides massive expansion of the welfare state and the costly incarceration of millions of people for victimless crimes. These two “wars” have done nothing to reduce poverty or curb the abuse of drugs.

But their effects are minor compared to the next “war” which our government is set to engage. And this is one in which you will be enlisted, whether you like it or not. I’m talking about the “War on Climate Change.” Read the rest of this entry »

The non-farm payrolls figure for March was bad. The economy lost another 663,000 jobs that month. This brought the total jobs lost in the first quarter of 2009 to almost 2 million. Compare that to all of 2008, where “only” just over 3 million jobs were lost all of that year.

At the rate of 2 million a quarter, we would lose 8 million a year… more than 2 ½ times as much as in 2008. This current loss resulted in the unemployment rate rising to 8.5%, the highest reading since late 1983.

The numbers aren’t in yet for April, but another 600k+ jobs are expected to be lost. This would be the 16th straight month of job losses.  The record stands at 17 and at this point, it doesn’t look like we have any choice but to break the record.