JOLTS stands for Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. The October report shows there are now 4.4 official unemployed people hunting for a job to every position available.
The November 2010 monthly unemployment figures are out. The official unemployment rate increased to 9.8% and the total jobs gained were 39,000, with 39,500 of those jobs being temporary. Yes, you read that right, there were more temporary jobs created than the finally tally of jobs.
The September 2010 monthly unemployment figures are out. The official unemployment rate stayed the same at 9.6% and the total jobs lost were -95,000. -159,000 government jobs were lost and private sector jobs increased by +64,000, with 16,900 of those jobs being temporary. -77,000 of the government jobs lost were temporary Census jobs. U6, or the broader unemployment measurement, jumped up to 17.1%.
The headline September unemployment numbers were bad.
Payrolls dropped by 263,000 in September, exceeding the median forecast in Bloomberg’s survey, with losses extending from cash-strapped state and local governments to retailers to builders, today’s report showed. The jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent in August, while working hours matched a record low.
This is bad news across the board, and far worse than the numbers the markets expected yesterday. However, these reports dramatically understate just how bad the real numbers were.
For example, if you looked at the non-seasonally adjusted numbers, the labor force shrank by 1,280,000 in a single month! The participation rate in the workforce fell from 65.6% to 65.0%.
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