Working Thoughts

Here are the job market and compensation numbers for November 2010 (based on the job report):

Net gain of 39,000 jobs in the month

• Private sector payrolls increased by 50,000
  

• Down from 160,000 last month
• Worst performance in 10 months
  

• Analysts expected an overall gain of 150,000
  
• September was revised to a loss of 24,000 jobs from an original reading of 95,000 lost and a revised loss of 41,000
• October was revised to a gain of 172,000 from an original reading of 151,000
  
• The revisions for August, September, and October added 145,000 jobs to the economy
  
• 6.1
  million people have been jobless for more than 6 months (long term
  unemployed) – virtually unchanged from August, September, and October
  
  • 41.9% of the unemployed are long term unemployed – inched up from 41.8% last month and 41.7% the month before
    
• The main type of hire was for Temporary Help Service (+40,000) and since September of 2009 this employment has improved by 494,000
  

• Its normally an indicator of an improving economic cycle, but a year of it indicates uncertain business conditions

• Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), shows that job openings increased by 351,000 in October
• The total number of job openings in October was 3.4 million, while the total number of unemployed workers was 14.8 million
• The ratio of unemployed workers to job openings improved to 4.4-to-1 in October
  

Unemployment rate went up to 9.8%

• Analysts predicted it would be 9.6%
• The unemployment rate has been over 9% for 19 months – the longest such streak since the early ’80s
  
• The employment to population ratio is 58.2% – relatively unchanged
  
• The
  U-6 report, which is a broader group to count (workers who are part
  time but want to be full time and discouraged worker), stayed at 17.0%. This indicates the increase of the unemployment rate to 9.8% is a reflection of more people actively looking for jobs in November (these individuals are only counted if they are actively looking)
• The unemployment rate for those with a college education is 5.1%

• Highest in 40 years

• PMI,
  a measure of manufacturing pace, is 56.6% and the 19th consecutive
  month of readings over 50 percent. Anything above 50% means the
  machines are running
• Productivity, measured for the quarter, showed tepid growth of 2.3%
  

Specific Segment Job numbers:

• Manufacturing lost 13,000 jobs
  
• Construction lost 5,000 jobs
• Retailers lost 28,100 jobs
  
• Leisure and Hospitality Services gained 11,000 jobs
  
• Government sector lost 11,000, Federal gained 2,000
  
• Education and Health Services grew by 30,000 jobs

• Health Care and Social Assistance grew by 34,000
  

• Professional and Business Services grew by 53,000

• 39.500 jobs added in Temporary Help
  

Wage (can be revised):

• The average weekly paycheck (seasonally adjusted) is $642.87 – a decrease of $1.91
  
• The average hourly earning (seasonally adjusted) is $19.19
  
• Average
  weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on
  private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted is
  33.5 hours
  

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Job Report Stats Summary