CNBC:
US added 295,000 jobs in Feb vs. 240,000 est; unemployment rate at 5.5% vs. 5.6% est
Job creation boomed in February by 295,000 despite the brutal winter conditions, and the unemployment rate dropped to 5.5 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.
Despite the strong month, the picture was essentially the same for the American worker: Pay rose just 3 cents an hour, representing a 2.0 percent annualized gain as wage inflation remained elusive after a big jump in January. The average work week was unchanged at 34.6 hours.
Bars and restaurants represented the biggest growth area, adding 59,000 positions, while professional and business services grew by 51,000. Construction added 29,000 and health care increased 24,000.
The total actually represented a decline from the previous month, which was unrevised at 329,000. December's number fell from 239,000 to 257,000.
Which of course is not the whole story as Zero Hedge points out:
Americans Not In The Labor Force Rise To Record 92.9 Million As Participation Rate Declines Again
For those (very few now, with even the Fed admitting the unemployment rate has become a meaningless, anachronistic relic) still wondering why the unemployment rate dropped once again, sliding from 5.7% to 5.5%, the reason is that while the number of unemployed Americans dropped by 274K thousand while those employed rose by 96K, the underlying math is that the civilian labor force dropped from 157,180 to 157,002 (following the major revisions posted last month), while the people not in the labor force rose by 354,000 in February, rising to a record 92,898,000 (people who currently want a job rose to 6,538K) matching the all time high number of Americans not in the labor force.
End result: the labor force participation rate dropped once more, declining to only 62.8%, which as the chart below shows is just off the lowest print recorded since 1978.
FUCK YER
HOPE AND CHANGE
AND FUNDAMENTAL TRANSFORMATION!
1 comment:
The Obama protectorate always responds to this claiming the huge bump of baby boomers are retiring out of the workforce (ME), but guess what...THAT'S A KNOWN NUMBER. AND NEVER MENTIONED.
So let's pull that number out and take look at the number of those who gave up.
Let's ALSO see how many new jobs are LESS than full time.
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