The BLS August 2016 JOLTS report shows once again job openings exceeding the number of hires. While the number of openings declined for the month, the number of hires stayed below it. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey history clearly has hires exceeding openings as a trend since February 2015. For August, job openings were 5.4 million while hires were 5.2 million.
The August 2016 unemployment report shows a fairly underwhelming month of statistics, yet not as bad as some in the press would have you believe. The unemployment rate remained the same at 4.9%, the third month in a row. Generally speaking August was no change from July. Both the labor participation rate and the civilian to employment ratio did not change. The number of people employed was low and similar to the number of those unemployed.
The July 2016 unemployment report shows a pretty good month of statistics. The unemployment rate remained the same at 4.9%. Yet this month, unlike others, the low unemployment rate is not due to more people dropping off of the statistical radar. Instead the labor participation rate ticked up a tenth of a percentage point as more people entered the labor force.
The BLS April 2016 JOLTS report shows job openings once again matching their July 2015 record high. Actual hiring though slid and openings now far exceed the number of people hired. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey history shows a new trend as job openings have surpassed actual hiring and this has been going on since February 2015.
The May 2016 unemployment report on the surface sounds like great news. The unemployment rate dropped to an astoundingly low 4.7%. This is a -0.3 percentage point drop from last month and a level not seen since November 2007. Yet the statistics which make up the unemployment rate actually shows something terrible. The unemployment rate dropped because 664,000 people dropped out of the labor force with almost half a million no longer counted as unemployed.
The April 2016 unemployment report shows some disturbing developments behind the numbers. While the official unemployment rate did not change and stayed at 5.0%, over half a million dropped out of the labor force during the month and over three hundred thousand are no longer employed. The labor participation rate dropped by 0.2 percentage points as did the civilian participation rate.
The BLS February 2016 JOLTS report shows very high job openings once again. Job openings have more than recovered from the recession and now job openings are greater than the number of new hires. Actual hiring has also reached prerecession levels and is at a nine year high. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are now 1.4 official unemployed per job opening for February 2016.
The March 2016 unemployment report shows some interesting movements. The official unemployment rate ticked up 0.1 percentage points to 5.0% yet this is actually good news as more people came out of the woodwork and participated in the labor force. The labor force grew by almost 400 thousand and those employed shot up by another 246 thousand.
The February 2016 unemployment report is being reported as great news once again. The official unemployment rate is 4.9%, a rate not seen since February 2008 and no change from January. Overall, this month's CPS does have some great news in it. There were over half a million more employed than the previous month and those not in the labor force declined by over 300 thousand.
The January 2016 unemployment report is being reported as nothing but good news. The official unemployment rate is 4.9%, a rate not seen since February 2008. This is the weird month where annual population adjustments are applied and not backwards adjusted.
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