Courtesy of Mish.
Initial Reaction
The establishment survey reports of +236,000 job.
For the first time in four months the establishment survey was accompanied by a healthy +170,000 surge in the household survey.
Let’s dig deeper.
The economy added a whopping 446,000 part-time jobs. Thus, the economy shed 276,000 full-time jobs. Those part-time jobs were supposedly “on purpose”.
It’s fair to point out the volatile nature of part-time statistics, but the 446,000 increase is unusually large.
One possible explanation for the surge in voluntary part-time employment is retirees needing additional income. However, that theory is not consistent with a labor force shedding 130,000 workers.
Part-time employment for “economic reasons” rose by 15,000.
Those not in the labor force rose by 296,000 and the labor force itself fell by 130,000. Those factors, coupled with the massive rise in part-time employment explains the .2 drop in the unemployment rate.
Long-term unemployment (27 weeks or more) rose by 89,000, the first increase since October.
This is a decent report, but it is nowhere near as good as it looks at first glance, with obvious questions about part-time employment and duration of unemployment.
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