Here are the job market and compensation numbers for April 2011 (based on the job report):
Net gain of 54,000 jobs in the month (revised to a gain of 25,000 jobs)
- Analysts expected an overall gain of 180,00Private sector payrolls increased by 83,000
- Private service producing industries added 80,000 (194,000 last month and 154,000 the month before
- Goods producing industries gained 3,000 (38,000 last month and 40,000 the month before)
- The US has added 908,000 private sector jobs this year and 2.1 million since the start of 2010
- April was revised to a gain of 232,000 from an original reading of 244,000
- March was revised to a gain of 194,000 from an original reading of 216,000 and a revision of 221,000
- Revisions subtracted 39,000 jobs from earlier readings
- Payroll processing company ADP said private-sector payrolls grew by 38,000 in May
- downwardly revised 177,000 increase in April
- economists’ expectations for private sector job growth of 170,000 for the month.
- the manufacturing sector cut 9,000 jobs
- the financial services sector lost 6,000 jobs
- the construction sector cut 8,000 workers
- the broader services sector added 48,000 jobs overall
- McDonald’s hired 62,000 workers, which are part of a subcategory called food services. Without this hiring spree, the report could conceivably be a neutral report (no jobs gained or lost)
In April, the number of job openings was 3 million, down a touch from 3.1 million in March
About 13.9 million people were out of work in April - 6.2 million had have been jobless for six months or longer
45.1% of the unemployed are long term unemployed. - Employers announced plans to cut 37,135 jobs in April, down 4.3% from May 2010
- 1.8% increase over April’s 36,490 planned job cuts
- comparing the first five months of 2010 to 2011 shows 2011 has 21% fewer announced job cuts (things are bad, but not as bad as last year)
Unemployment rate rose to 9.1%
- Analysts predicted it would remain at 8.9%
- The labor force
participation rate is 64.2% (66.5% is average to good) – unchanged for the fifth straight month - The employment to population ratio is 58.4% – No change
- 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), rose to 15.8% from 15.9% last month
- PMI, a measure of manufacturing pace, is 53.5% and the 22nd consecutive month of readings over 50 percent. Anything above 50% means the machines are running. This is a significant drop from April’s reading of 60.4%
- Service sector activity rose to 54.6% (52.8% last month and 57.3% before that and down from 59.7%). It was the 17th straight month of growth
Specific Segment Job numbers:
- Manufacturing lost 5,000 jobs
- Construction gained 2,000 jobs
- Retailers lost 8,500 jobs
- Leisure and Hospitality Services lost 6,000 jobs
- Government sector lost 29,000, 28,000 was in local government
- Education and Health Services grew by 34,000 jobs
- Health Care and Social Assistance grew by 27,200
- Professional and Business Services grew by 44,000
- 1,200 jobs lost in Temporary Help
Wage (can be revised):
- The average weekly paycheck (seasonally adjusted) is $652.85 (a raise of $2.02)
- The average hourly earning (seasonally adjusted) is $19.43 – up six cents from last month and 11 cents over the last two months
- Average weekly hours and overtime of production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls by industry sector, seasonally adjusted is 33.6 hours, no change again
Working Thoughts 