While the August U.S. employment report likely provided little impetus inside Washington to arrive at a compromise on another round of fiscal aid, the initial jobless claims report for the week ending Sept. 5 provided a stark contrast on domestic employment dynamics. With permanent job losses ... READ MORE >
unemployment
August U.S. employment report: Strong hiring continues for fourth month
The return of workers to their jobs continued at a strong pace in August, with 1.371 million jobs added, including 238,000 temporary census workers. Excluding those census workers, who will be laid off at the end of September, the pace of hiring slowed to 1.1 million from 1.7 million in July. It is the ... READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Americans with no job for 27 weeks or more rises sharply
The number of Americans without a job for 27 weeks or more rose in August to the highest level in three years. The reason this matters? Labor market studies by the Federal Reserve show that individuals who experience joblessness for more than 26 weeks face increasing risk of becoming permanently detached ... READ MORE >
Methodological changes to jobless claims data are behind their slower pace
First-time jobless claims declined to a seasonally adjusted rate of 881,000 for the week ending Aug. 29, with non-seasonally adjusted claims falling to 833,000 as the Department of Labor introduced a new way to estimate the pace of firings in the domestic labor market. At the same time, the federal ... READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Weekly initial jobless claims higher than expected
In a sobering surprise, the Labor Department reported on Thursday that initial jobless claims for the week ended Aug. 15 reached a higher-than-expected 1.1 million, a sign the road to economic recovery will be bumpy and volatile as the country struggles to gain footing amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ... READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Continuing jobless claims data point to cracks in labor market
The insured unemployment rate increased to 10.6% for the week ending Aug. 1, which is above the Bureau of Labor Statistics' July estimate of 10.2%, implying August nonfarm payrolls may be less robust than expected. The insured unemployment rate represents the number of people currently receiving ... READ MORE >
CHART OF THE DAY: Job openings increase, but so does competition for them
Number of unemployed persons per job opening The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, shows job openings increased in June as the number of available positions rose to 5.89 million, compared with 5.37 million in May. Meanwhile, our chart of the day shows how different ... READ MORE >
U.S. employment report: Recall of workers slows in July
The recall of workers to their jobs slowed in July as evidence of a much greater problem in the domestic labor force mounts. While the change in total employment of 1.763 million reported by the Labor Department on Friday exceeded the consensus forecast of a 1.4 million gain, that implies that ... READ MORE >
Initial jobless claims: Potential inflection point
Initial jobless claims for the month of July point to a potential inflection point in the American labor market. July's data perfectly captured the flattening out of consumer demand and slowing of overall growth in the economy as the pandemic intensified, all of which resulted in rising ... READ MORE >
US July employment report preview: Stagnation
We anticipate that there will be no increase in total employment for July following two strong months of worker recalls when the U.S. employment data is released on Friday. This is mostly because of the intensification of the pandemic across the South, Southwest and California, as well as the ... READ MORE >