Working Thoughts

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
    
• 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
  

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Job Report Stats Summary