Sunday, May 09, 2010

Other Highlights from Friday's Employment Report

Two of the hardest hit sectors during the recession are now starting to show employment gains:

1. Manufacturing employment increased by 44,000 in April, the largest single monthly increase in factory jobs since August of 1998.

2. Since the first of the year, manufacturing employment has increased by 101,000, the largest four-month increase in factory jobs since the four-month period ending February 1998.

3. Construction employment increased for two consecutive months for the first time since December 2006-January 2007.

4. The 40,000 increase in construction employment in March and April was the largest two-month increase in construction jobs in three years, since March-April 2007.

Data here.

10 Comments:

At 5/09/2010 9:23 PM, Blogger SBVOR said...

These stats are well and good, but...

What about the unemployment rate?

 
At 5/10/2010 1:56 AM, Blogger PeakTrader said...

"Global policymakers unleashed an emergency rescue package worth about $1 trillion to stabilize world financial markets and prevent the Greek debt crisis from destroying the euro currency."

My comment: It's a necessary response, similar to the $700 billion in TARP, to prevent a global depression. The question is how will the additional debt be paid for? (also, the U.S. funds 20% of the IMF).

Moreover, the S&P 500 rallied from 667 to 1220 from Mar '09 to May '10 (the all-time high was 1,576 in Oct '07). I suspect, to sustain the recovery, U.S. home prices need to rise over the next year.

 
At 5/10/2010 3:43 AM, Anonymous grant said...

The US dollar has depreciated by 40% over the last 12 months so Boeing aircraft have recently been selling like hot cakes.One airline recently ordered 57 aircraft in a single order.
The high of the euro in recent times has been around 1.50 but is now near 1.26. This is a 17% drop from it's high.
How convenient the worlds biggest exporter Germany did not step in to guarantee loans to EMU member Greece immediately when their crisis began.
A lot of media coverage was given to the Greek tragedy and all the it was,the Euro was falling to it's current level.
Who needs allies like Germany.Airbus Industry will be cutting into Boeing sales. Other German exporters will also be more competitive.

 
At 5/10/2010 6:04 AM, Anonymous Mike W said...

Are these "jobs" included? I'd say this is an example of the law of unintended consequences. How is this healthy?

-----

Some job applicants are asking to be paid in cash so they can collect unemployment illegally, said Gayle Younglove, vice president at Outdoor Experts Inc. in Romulus.

"Unfortunately, we feel the economy is promoting more and more people and companies to play the system and get paid or collect cash money so they don't have to pay taxes," Younglove said.



From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100510/BIZ/5100335/Landscapers-find-workers-choosing-jobless-pay#ixzz0nWW4EDpV

 
At 5/10/2010 9:11 AM, Blogger juandos said...

Reading that fed report I noticed they don't say what part of the country these jobs are popping up at...

Is there something, a link or something in the report that does indicate which sections of the country are experiencing these employment growths?

I mean otherwise the fed could be making it up...

 
At 5/10/2010 9:56 AM, Anonymous morganovich said...

"The US dollar has depreciated by 40% over the last 12 months"

what on earth are you talking about?

the dollar has been about flat for 12 months and up strongly since November on a trade weighted basket basis. (try looking at the UUP to get a sense)

if the dollar had depreciated 40%, the whole global system would have crashed.

 
At 5/10/2010 11:26 AM, Anonymous morganovich said...

juandos-

they did make it up. attaching an estimated location to the statistical birth/death analysis that drive that number wouldn't make the presumed jobs any more real.

for a great discussion of why payrolls is actually a worse indicator of employment than U6 etc, and a good explanation of the methodology of both, try this:

http://www.shadowstats.com/article/employment

 
At 5/10/2010 9:48 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Employment stats and unemployment stats are both important. Just to different people.

Neither one tells the whole story so there is no point in gerrymandering stats to make a political point.

Grow up and take a total systems view.

 
At 5/11/2010 3:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

WHATS A TOTAL SYSTEMS VIEW?

 
At 5/11/2010 10:39 PM, Anonymous Steve said...

Signs of recovery are strong in America as you point out. The European debt issues may plague the markets for the summer and stall the rebound for a period of time.

 

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