– Full-Time Jobs -228,000; Part-Time Jobs +31,000 (ZeroHedge, Aug 3, 2012):
We got the pre-spun job quantity data already, where we learned that nearly 3 times the headline print was due to seasonal and B/D adjustments and is thus nothing but noise. Now we get the quality. As can be seen below, courtesy of Table A9 from the Household Survey, in July the number of part-time jobs added was 31K, bringing the total to 27,925, just shy of the all time record of 28,038. Full time jobs? Down 228,000 to 114,345,000 lower than the February full-time jobs print of 114,408,000. Once again, more and more Americans are relinquishing any and all benefits associated with Full Time Jobs benefits, and instead are agreeing on a job. Any job. Even if it means working just 1 hour a week. For the BLS it doesn’t matter – 1 hour of work a week still qualifies you as a Part-Time worker.
Full time and part-time jobs summary:
– US unemployment rate rises on weak jobs report (WSWS, Aug 4, 2012):
The US economy added 163,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate grew to 8.3 percent, the Labor Department reported on Friday. Although the number of jobs created was the most in five months, and higher than had been expected, it was barely enough to keep up with population growth.
The headline figure of jobs created, however, was contradicted by the rise in the unemployment rate, which is based on a different survey. According to this separate survey, the total number of officially unemployed people in the US actually rose to 12.8 million last month. The number of people with a job fell by 195,000, and the number of unemployed grew by 45,000.
A rise in the unemployment rate can sometimes reflect an increase of rise in the number of people looking for work, which causes them to be categorized as officially unemployed. However, according to the government figure, the number of people in the labor force fell by 150,000, and the employment-population ratio fell by 0.2 percentage points, to 58.4. Thus, unemployment rose even as tens of thousands of people gave up looking for work and therefore are no longer counted as unemployed.
The “real” unemployment rate, referred to as the “U6,” which includes those working part-time for economic reasons and those who have given up looking for work, hit 15 percent of the workforce. The figure has been growing steadily since April, when it was 14.5 percent.
Read moreFull Time Jobs -228,000; Part-Time Jobs +31,000 – US Unemployment Rate Rises On Weak Jobs Report