Job Growth Lower Than Expected: Marginally/Unemployed Grows

The June Unemployment numbers were just released and they remain pitiful.   Only 80,000 jobs were added to the economy (not enough to keep up with population growth), basically 3,000 more than the revised number for May (77,000). Industry estimates were that the jobs added would be between 90-100,000--- these are a disappointment.

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to edge up in June (+80,000), and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Professional and business services added jobs, and employment in other major industries changed little over the month. Household Survey Data The number of unemployed persons (12.7 million) was essentially unchanged in June, and the unemployment rate held at 8.2 percent. (See table A-1.) Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for blacks (14.4 percent) edged up over the month, while the rates for adult men (7.8 percent), adult women (7.4 percent), teenagers (23.7 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and Hispanics (11.0 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.3 percent in June (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.) In June, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was essentially unchanged at 5.4 million. These individuals accounted for 41.9 percent of the unemployed. (See table A-12.) Both the civilian labor force participation rate and the employment- population ratio were unchanged in June at 63.8 and 58.6 percent, respectively. (See table A-1.) The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised from +77,000 to +68,000, and the change for May was revised from +69,000 to +77,000.

Here's something else a bit frightening, a little more than 25,000 of those added jobs were temporary positions.

 The underemployed numbers, Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, rose for the third straight month 14.5 April, 14.8 May and June is at 14.9%.

The economy has added just 75,000 jobs a month in the April-June quarter. That's one-third of 226,000 a month created in the first quarter. Job creation is also trailing last year's pace through the first six months of 2012--just one more example of the failure of the President's economic programs.

Interestingly the pattern of the Obama Presidency remains in place---a hopeful first quarter followed by lousy second and third quarters. Barack Obama may be The NY Jets of Presidents.

Update: Believe it or not, our president said the jobs report was a step in the right direction...perhaps he is correct, but only if our objective was to step in doggie poo.