Posted on 07/03/2008 11:34:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - A report released by the U.S. Labor Department on Thursday shows that in June nonfarm payrolls declined for the sixth consecutive month.
U.S. payrolls last month fell by 62,000 workers, while the jobless rate remained at a four-year high of 5.5 percent after jumping in May by the most in two decades.
Last month, the unemployment rate jumped up from 5 percent in April.
The Labor Department report Thursday showed the unemployment rate for workers with unemployment insurance, which tends to track the U.S. jobless rate, increased to 2.4 percent from 2.3 percent.
Over a six-month period, payrolls have declined for a total loss of 438,000 workers and the payroll in April and May was revised to 52,000 more jobs.
Any figure above 350,000 indicates that the labor market is weak; weekly jobless claims has remained above that level since the month of April this year.
The Labor Department stated that an average hourly earnings moved up by 6 cents to $18.01, which has increased by 3.4 percent from a year earlier.
The report showed that most job losses were reported in sectors including construction down 43,000, manufacturing 33,000, goods-producing industries 69,000 and business services 51,000.
The number of jobs gained in education and health services 15,000, leisure and hospitality 7,000, and government 29,000.
The four-week average, which is a less volatile measure, of initial jobless claims rose by 11,250 to 390,500 from 379,250 in the fourth week of June and compared to 378,250 in the week prior.
The four-week average was between 300,000 and 325,000 for much of 2007, which is a sign of healthy job growth, while it was below 350,000 for most of the first quarter this year.
Last year, the economy created as much as 91,000 new jobs each month on average.
Someone PLEASE refute this nonsense!
Neither the headline nor the story seem to have been written by some whose first language is actually English.
“U.S. payrolls last month fell by 62,000 workers, while the jobless rate remained at a four-year high of 5.5 percent after jumping in May by the most in two decades.”
Amazing what raising the minimum wage can do.
Most interesting.
Other than the US Dept of Labor, where would someone go to get the real numbers?
Well, if the Federal government mandates an artificially high minimum rate for labor, it should follow that consumers of that labor will be able to afford less of it. They will do without, they will modernize and automate, they will find some Mexicans who work for $3 per hour cash...whatever...
My question is: When will this bite big labor’s rear end? Many labor contracts are tied to the minimum wage and therefore the cost of organized labor (organized crime?) also increases...
Reid and pelosi’s fault.
I place zero confidence in any economic numbers that come from the government. First of all, they come from worthless bureaucrats. Second of all, the underlying forumlas change constantly for political purposes (I believe, for example, that making hamburgers is now classified as “manufacturing”).
Eventually we will all have Gummint jobs and be paid at the pay grade and live in the Project and have a Gummint car if we rank high enough. No one would have their own car. This would be a perfect Liberal world.
“The report showed that most job losses were reported in sectors including construction down 43,000, manufacturing 33,000, goods-producing industries 69,000 and business services 51,000”
Mininum wage?
I dont see any minimum wage jobs there.
Well thank goodness it wasn't in anything important.....
The number of jobs gained .........leisure and hospitality 7,000
Would that be jobs like maids, janitors and pool cleaners?
“Mininum wage?
I dont see any minimum wage jobs there.”
Shhh! You’ll wreck their day with that kind of observation. :)
You mean its been June for six straight months? No wonder everything seems so monotonous. Kind of like Groundhog Month.
Wow, gas prices up more than $2.00 a gallon since Democrats became the majority, now this. I thought....oh, never mind.
Why bother? America bashers are a dime a dozen and Mayur Pahilajani sure goes out of his way to say bad things about America.
He makes a big deal out of non-farm payrolls so all the useful idiots will think that's what "jobs' are. If that were true than me and Rush Limbaugh don't have jobs. The fact is that the unemployment rate's the same that it was four years ago when Kerry was complaining about the worst economy since Hoover, but now 4.3 million new jobs have been created for the expanding workforce.
Happy Independence Day!
Are you serious?
Minimum wage has nothing to do with it. Trust me. I work in operational mgmt for a grocery in 20 states.
Oh sorry, I didn’t realize I was dealing with an expert on unemployment.
In most areas of the east coast (including the south such as the Carolinas, Tenn, Alabama, etc) and the midwest, we’ve had to pay over $7/hr just to get bag boys and part time high school cashiers for the better part of 2 years. They frequently leave within 3 months for better paying jobs. In 2006, only 8 million people in the entire country made less than $7.25/hr which the minimum wage still hasn’t hit yet (not till next year). It’s probably far less by now. I discuss reguarly with all of our HR coordinators and VPs and minimum wage has never been discussed as an issue. But I’m sure you have plenty of empirical evidence that employers are cutting back due to minimum wage, and not to a slowing economy, skyrocketing cost increases, and fuel surcharges.
Hmmmm....job losses coincide with democRATS taking control of congress in 2006, unemployment was decreasing while GOP controlled congress.
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