February 2009 Jobs Report and Wages
March 7, 2009 Leave a comment
Here are the job market and compensation numbers for February 2009 (based on the job report):
Net loss of 651,000 jobs in the month (revised to a loss of 655,000, revised to a final loss of 726,000)
- Analysts expected a loss of 650,000
- Fourteen straight months of job losses
- 4.4 million jobs lost in 2008
- That is approximately the size of the workforce in NC, MI, and GA
- Almost 2 million jobs lost in the last three months
- 4.4 million jobs lost in 2008
- December was revised to loss of 681,000 jobs (revised to a loss of 673,000)
- January was revised to a loss of 655,000 jobs (revised again to a loss of 741,000, revised to a final loss of 779,000)
- With revisions counted the economy has averaged a monthly loss of 646,000 jobs
- Long term unemployed increased by 270,000 to 2.9 million persons
- For every job opening, there are four times as many people unemployed
Unemployment rate rose to 8.1%
- Analysts predicted a rise to 7.9%
- A 3.2% drop since the increase started
- Underemployment is now at 14.8%
- From 13.9% last month (an increase of 0.9% in one month!)
- 23.1 million people are estimated to be out of a job or working a part time job involuntarily
- Long term unemployed, the percentage of those who don’t have jobs, is at 23.1%
Specific Segment Job numbers:
- Manufacturing lost 168,000 jobs
- Construction lost 104,000 jobs
- Retailers lost 40,000
- Temporary Work lost 78,000 jobs
- Leisure and Hospitality Services lost 33,000 jobs
- Government sector added 9,000
- Health care grew by 27,000 jobs
Wage:
- The average weekly paycheck is $617.72 (seasonally adjusted to $615.05
- An increase of almost $10
- Productivity was way down 0.4% as well (productivity often improves during increased unemployment)
- The average hourly work week stayed at 33.3 for the third straight month