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Traditionally, when it comes to job numbers reported by the BLS's Establishment (the source of the monthly nonfarm payrolls change) and Household (the source of the monthly unemployment rate data) surveys, there is a substantial discrepancy. However, in May's far stronger than expected report, the two for the first time were almost identical: the Establishment Survey reported an increase of 280K jobs, while according to the Household survey 272K jobs were added. Impressive numbers in a month in which only 215K jobs were expected to be added. There were the usual kinks, of course. Two thirds of all jobs,...

Whether it's a potential employer, current employer, budding romantic partner, long-time significant other, or someone else in your life, there's a good chance they have or will run a Google search for your name. Do you know everything that they'll find? The answer could make a difference between a job and the unemployment line, or ‘happily ever after’ and nights alone. That's why you need to run your own search first. Search Google for more than mentions Start with a basic search for your name in quotes, like "Kim Komando,” for instance. If you have a more common name, you...

Payroll Stats Become Even More ImplausibleSince Q1 GDP was revised lower by almost 1% that meant estimates of productivity were going to be even more out of alignment than they were at the first release. Of course, in a less massaged environment productivity might have preserved some sense if there was less rigidity from the BLS on the employment side. In other words, when “output” estimates were reduced (and they were, by more than GDP) it would make sense that everything would be revised downward in a more cohesive process. Instead, output was reduced significantly, by 1.4%, while total hours...

One of the defining features of jobs "recovery" and the main reason why wage growth has been so far below the Fed's expectations for years it has prevented wage inflation from appearing despite years of QE, is that the quality of jobs added month after month has disappointing. May was no difference.Yes, the headline print of 280K job additions was great, but a quick look at how the BLS got there shows that nothing has changed because four of the five main job additions were, as usual for the lowest paid jobs. Here is the breakdown: Education and Health...

The reason why despite the better than expected increase in jobs the US unemployment rate rose from 5.4% to 5.5% even as the number of Unemployed workers rose by 125K to 8,674MM was due to the 397K influx into the civilian labor force which rose to 157.459MM, a new record high in the series, which on the surface would suggest declining slack as more people who have been traditionally left out of the employment calculation go back into the labor pool.Which aslo meant that since the total US civilian non-institutional population rose by half this number, the number of...

Blunting worries about the American economy’s momentum after a stretch of lackluster growth this year, the government reported on Friday that employers added a hefty 280,000 jobs in May, well above the average monthly totals logged over the last year. The official unemployment rate ticked up to 5.5 percent, as more Americans returned to the labor force and returned to actively looking for work. At the same time, hourly wages rose 0.3 percent last month, finally providing workers with some long-awaited gains. United States markets were expected to open lower on concerns that the strong report would provide further reason...

In the future, highly skilled people will be bringing home fatter paychecks, but they'll rarely be home long enough to spend them.For a glimpse of the future of work, especially the high-paying kind, look at finance and high-tech companies. Some of the biggest offer high employee salaries combined with lavish perks like free meals at work, luxury shuttle buses for commuters, and extras such as dry cleaning picked up and dropped off at people’s desks. This might look like the fruits of corporate beneficence. In fact, alongside email and other digital technologies, perks like these aim to maximize efficiency and...

".................“I think that argument’s even truer now,” he said. “Almost all of the battleground states are led by Republican governors. … What our argument should be, when going into those states, is: Remember how things were messed up? You not only elected Rick Snyder (in Michigan), Rick Scott (Florida),Susana Martinez (New Mexico), but you re-elected them because they made things better. “Imagine how much better if we could elect a reform-minded Republican like that to be president.” That will require the GOP to win over voters who tend to back Democrats, such as those under age 25. “I’ve got two...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup's U.S. Job Creation Index reached +32 for the month of May, the highest Gallup has found, by one point, since 2008. It slightly exceeds the +31 found in April, and the +30 found in September 2014. Shortly after Gallup began tracking job creation in January 2008, the index nosedived as the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the economy. After remaining in negative territory for most of 2009, the index slowly recovered, reaching +30 in September 2014. It then dipped slightly and stayed between +27 and +29 for six months. More recently, it increased two points in...

Mother’s Day this year, Hillary Clinton released a short video calling for the United States to adopt paid family leave policies. The U.S., she said, in support of her call, is "the only developed country" that doesn’t require employers to offer paid leave. Paid family leave requirements and other related benefits for working parents are indeed common around the rest of the world, and they are intended to make life friendlier for women who work and have families. But as The New York Times notes this morning, these policies come with trade-offs: Even as they make it easier for many...

This is the situation. I am late 50s in the corporate world of supply chain management. I've done OK, though not spectacular and gone about as far as I can go. We are empty nesters now and my mother, for whom I was the primary care giver, passed away about six months ago.The present corporate world is giving signals that my work, which they were formerly quite happy with, is all of a sudden, a topic of petty complaints. I believe it is time to look for a new career.I see tons of ads for truck drivers promising a minimum...

President Obama on Friday will sign a two-month extension of highway funding into law, the White House said. The measure prevents a sudden halt in infrastructure funding that was slated to begin May 31. But White House press secretary Josh Earnest criticized the stopgap bill as a punt and urged Congress to pass a long-term measure to fund road projects. “It’s the president’s view that the era of short-term patches ... must come to an end,” Earnest told reporters. Earnest noted it was the 33rd temporary fix for highway funding since 2008. The uncertainty caused by that approach has led...

The 2016 presidential-campaign season will bring all sorts of familiar proposals to create jobs in the U.S., but candidates who really understand today’s global economy should highlight a more surprising possible engine of new employment for Americans: China. China’s middle class continues to grow, reaching an estimated 630 million people by 2022. Those consumers want better health care, world-class education and a cleaner environment. China itself will eventually be able to provide those services, but meanwhile, the Internet makes it possible for China to create and sustain American jobs. Take health care. In 1994, a Chinese university student named Zhu...

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has signaled in a letter to President Obama that his state might not comply with a forthcoming rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants. The likely GOP presidential candidate told Obama in the May 21 letter that he has "deep concerns regarding our ability to develop a state plan to comply with" the proposed Environmental Protection Agency targets. The implicit threat makes Walker the highest-profile governor to consider endorsing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's strategy of undercutting the regulation through states refusing to submit a compliance plan, though he ultimately stopped short of doing so. "The...

The elephants in the room lumber about, undisturbed by politicians or people of vision. The hard issues of the economy are well known. Politicians, bureaucracies, CEOs and trade union leaders have dealt the the issues of productivity, unemployment, competition from east and west, the collapse of industries through the decades of the 20th, and now the 21st, centuries. Yet these are harder now. Intelligent systems, robotic manufacturing, driverless vehicles, online services, all carve deep into established trades. In the post-war decades, every time a new technology came along, the feared bonfire of jobs didn’t happen — or only briefly and...

[Note from Scott Ott: The presidential primary process doesn't help us to decide who's qualified to bear the party standard, and to serve as chief executive, but rather who’s disqualified. It’s just our way of crushing the hopes and dreams of anyone who dares poke head from hole. Because you already know all of the reasons why every candidate, and potential candidate, has no right to expect the nomination, I'm going to write an utterly one-sided series on why each one should get it. If you’re concerned that I’m not providing fair and balanced analysis, I’m sure the folks in...

MACKINAC ISLAND, MI -- Mike Rowe made dirty jobs look cool. Can he do the same for the tool and die industry? The state today at the Mackinac Policy Conference annouced a partnership with Rowe and his foundation, mikeroweWorks, to produce videos that show students skilled trades are sustainable, good career paths. Rowe's videos, targeted to middle and high school students, will highlight industries like tool and die, health care, construction and welding. "Closing the skills gap is not about creating opportunity. It's about making sure that people understand all of the opportunities that currently exist," Rowe said Wednesday. "Michigan...

The Department of Justice on Wednesday said it will not make an emergency request to the Supreme Court to lift an order blocking President Obama's executive action on immigration. Instead, the administration will focus on the appeal of the injunction itself at the 5th Circuit, which is expected to proceed in July. "The Department has determined that it will not seek a stay from the Supreme Court," Justice Department spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said. Rodenbush said the "best way" to win the case is "to focus on the ongoing appeal on the merits of the preliminary injunction itself. That appeal has...

The Dallas Fed says factories churning out equipment and products in Texas slowed their output this month to levels unseen since 2009 when the nation was still mired in a recession. Texas manufacturing activity in May edged lower for the third month in a row as the effects of the oil slump continued to ripple through the state. About 28 percent of the state’s manufacturers reported a slowdown, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ monthly survey on Tuesday. “We are seeing all industries hold cash,” a fabricated metal manufacturing executive said in the survey. Others said refineries are...

Exclusive — Walker: We’d Be Sending in Navy to Stop Illegals if They Were Swarming Our Sea Ports Like They Do Southern Border [SNIP] ".........Since former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—one of amnesty’s biggest proponents—has now backed off his previous support for citizenship for illegal aliens (he wants to give them amnesty via legal status), that means Rubio is the only candidate who still stands with the AFL-CIO and their brothers in the Chamber of Commerce wanting to give illegal aliens full blown American citizenship. That means Walker, the anti-special interest union battler, has an even better opportunity to fight Rubio—who’s...