Courtesy of Mish.
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch under the title Jobs numbers are far worse than they look.
I selected my title from a humorous comment on MarketWatch by reader “Homer Price” who writes “Mike, What are you doing ? Trying to spoil the GREAT EMPLOYMENT news. Just wait until next year when the Unaffordable Care Act kicks in. THE BEST IS YET TO COME ……………………….. “
There are other interesting comments as well. Inquiring minds may wish to take a look. Now for my article …
Economists were surprised by the massive “beat” in today’s reported job numbers. The unemployment rate dropped .2 to 7.7% and the economy allegedly added 236,000 jobs.
Is that what really happened? No not really.
According to the household survey (on which the unemployment rate is based) the economy added a healthy 170,000 jobs. However, a whopping 446,000 of those jobs were part-time jobs. Simply put, the economy shed 276,000 full-time jobs.
The BLS labeled those 446,000 part-time jobs as “voluntary”. I am not so sure.
A Gallup Survey yesterday on Jobs show the percentage of workers working part time but wanting full-time work was 10.1% in February, an increase from 9.6% in January, and the highest rate measured since January 2012.
Gallup notes “Although fewer people are unemployed now than a year ago, they are not migrating to full-time jobs for an employer. In fact, fewer Americans are working full-time for an employer than were doing so a year ago, and more Americans are working part time. Although part-time work is clearly better than no work at all, these are not the types of good jobs that millions of Americans are still searching for.”
Obamacare Effect
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