Investing Curiouscatblog

Tag: career

  • Another 663,000 Jobs Lost in March in the USA

    663,000 jobs were lost in the USA in March and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1 to 8.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1 million jobs have been lost, with almost two-thirds (3.3 million) of the decrease occurring in the last 5 months. In March, job losses were large and widespread across the major industry sectors.

    In March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 694,000 to 13.2 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 8.5 percent. Why is that different than the numbers above? The numbers are from different sources of data, the first from BLS surveys of businesses and the 694,000 from household surveys. This reminds us that this data is approximate, not exact. Undoubtedly the figures will be revised as more data is analyzed.

    Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has grown by about 5.3 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points. Half of the increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate occurred in the last 4 months.

    The unemployment rates continued to trend upward in March for adult men, 8.8%, adult women 7.0%, whites 7.9% and Hispanics 11.4%. The jobless rates for African Americans, 13.3% and teenagers 21.7% were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.4% in March, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.6% a year earlier.

    Related: Over 500,000 Jobs Disappeared in November – Manufacturing Employment Data – 1979 to 2007 – What Do Unemployment Stats Mean?

  • Bad News on Jobs

    The growth in the number of jobs in the USA continues to be bad. The growth in jobs has been very poor thus far this century. The good news has been unemployment has been fairly low, it now sits at a 4 year high of 5.7% (which is not great but not horrible by historic standards).

    Update: today the labor department announced the unemployment rate increased to 6.1%.

    This year the news has been worse, with actually declining numbers of jobs and some economics see No job turnaround on horizon:

    Economists expect another weak job report when the government releases its August employment figures Friday. But many also are predicting job losses to continue deep into 2009 as well. USA employers have already trimmed 463,000 jobs from the payrolls during the first seven months of the year.
    …
    “I’m not expecting increases in employment until next year because in the second half of this year we’ll see very lethargic economic growth,” said Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers. The Conference Board has created a new reading called the Employment Trends Index, which combines a number of different economic readings to predict when employment will turn higher or lower. The index, which typically signals three to six months before job losses will turn to job gains, has yet to show signs of a recovery.

    “We think the unemployment rate will keep growing, probably reach between 6 to 6.5% by mid 2009 and only start declining in the second half of next year,” said Gad Levanon, senior economist at The Conference Board.

    Related: What Do Unemployment Stats Mean? – Economic Fault: Income Inequality

  • Salaries with a College Degree

    The Declining Value Of Your College Degree by Greg Ip:

    A degree, she says, “isn’t any big guarantee of employment, it’s a basic requirement, a step you have to take to even be considered for many professional jobs.”

    For decades, the typical college graduate’s wage rose well above inflation. But no longer. In the economic expansion that began in 2001 and now appears to be ending, the inflation-adjusted wages of the majority of U.S. workers didn’t grow, even among those who went to college. The government’s statistical snapshots show the typical weekly salary of a worker with a bachelor’s degree, adjusted for inflation, didn’t rise last year from 2006 and was 1.7% below the 2001 level.
    …
    To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed. Yet while that so-called college premium is up from 40% in 1979, it is little changed from 2001

    The job market is more challenging than it was, it seems to me. Counting on being able to steadily progress during your career, without any gaps or times when you must accept much less than you hoped, is risky. This is one more reason why it is so important to spend less and save more in the good times in your career.

    Related: What Do Unemployment Stats Mean? – Engineering Graduates Again in Great Shape – USA Job Growth – The IT Job Market