Another Phony Payroll Jobs Number

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced yesterday that the US economy created 271,000 jobs in October, a number substantially in excess of the expected 175,000 to 190,000 jobs. The unexpected job gain has dropped the unemployment rate to 5 percent. These two numbers will be the focus of the financial media presstitutes.

What is wrong with these numbers? Just about everything. First of all, 145,000 of the jobs, or 54%, are jobs arbitrarily added to the number by the birth-death model. The birth-death model provides an estimate of the net amount of unreported jobs lost to business closings and the unreported jobs created by new business openings. The model is based on a normally functioning economy unlike the one of the past seven years and thus overestimates the number of jobs from new business and underestimates the losses from closures. If we eliminate the birth-death model’s contribution, new jobs were 126,000.

Next, consider who got the 271,000 reported jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, all of the new jobs plus some—378,000—went to those 55 years of age and older. However, males in the prime working age, 25 to 54 years of age, lost 119,000 jobs. What seems to have happened is that full time jobs were replaced with part time jobs for retirees. Multiple job holders increased by 109,000 in October, an indication that people who lost full time jobs had to take two or more part time jobs in order to make ends meet.

Continue reading “Another Phony Payroll Jobs Number”

The Most Surprising Thing About Today’s Jobs Report

Tyler Durden's picture

After several months of weak and deteriorating payrolls prints, perhaps the biggest tell today’s job number would surprise massively to the upside came yesterday from Goldman, which as we noted earlier, just yesterday hiked its forecast from 175K to 190K. And while as Brown Brothers said after the reported that it is “difficult to find the cloud in the silver lining” one clear cloud emerges when looking just a little deeper below the surface.

That cloud emerges when looking at the age breakdown of the October job gains as released by the BLS’ Household Survey. What it shows is that while total jobs soared, that was certainly not the case in the most important for wage growth purposes age group, those aged 25-54.

As the chart below shows, in October the age group that accounted for virtually all total job gains was workers aged 55 and over. They added some 378K jobs in the past month, representing virtually the entire increase in payrolls. And more troubling: workers aged 25-54 actually declined by 35,000, with males in this age group tumbling by 119,000!

 

Little wonder then why there is no wage growth as employers continue hiring mostly those toward the twilight of their careers: the workers who have little leverage to demand wage hikes now and in the future, something employers are well aware of.

The next chart shows the break down the cumulative job gains since December 2007 and while workers aged 55 and older have gained over 7.5 million jobs in the past 8 years, workers aged 55 and under, have lost a cumulative total of 4.6 million jobs.

Continue reading “The Most Surprising Thing About Today’s Jobs Report”

ANOTHER BLS BULLSHIT REPORT – 101k MORE PEOPLE EMPLOYED – 144k LEAVE WORKFORCE

Here we go again. The BLS reports manipulated unemployment figures designed to mislead the ignorant masses about how shitty their lives are. The MSM dutifully reports the lies without digging into the numbers, as their job is to peddle the propaganda and keep the financial ponzi scheme going.

You know the economy sucks. You know the real unemployment rate is at least 15%. You know your real wages haven’t gone up since 2000. You know 90% of the Obama jobs being “created” are shit service jobs paying shit wages. You know bullshit when you see it.

The fact that Trump is so far ahead in the polls is because people in this country know they are getting fucked over, lied to, and screwed by the bankers, corporations and captured politicians.

Here are some of my observations about the BLS data you will not hear on CNBC and Bloomberg, nor read on Marketwatch or the WSJ:

Continue reading “ANOTHER BLS BULLSHIT REPORT – 101k MORE PEOPLE EMPLOYED – 144k LEAVE WORKFORCE”