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The government's latest survey of job openings and labor turnover implies that while the U.S. labor market has improved significantly since the recession, it is far from having recovered. The key determinant of labor market health is hiring, and hiring remains well below normal. The data-rich Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS, which Fed chair Janet Yellen is said to follow closely, reports monthly hires and separations, with the separation defined as the termination of an employment relationship for any reason. The hiring and separation numbers reveal important but little-known facts about how the U.S. labor market operates....

The Deloitte University Press has a very interesting, and comprehensive study on job gains and losses, by type of job, and state by state. The biggest winners are states involved in energy production, finance, or healthcare. The biggest losers are states that did not recover from the real estate bust, or lost population due to emigration. With that overview, let's dive deeper into the Geography of Jobs. Only now, as we reach the fifth anniversary of the end of the recession, has employment in the United States finally regained its pre-recession peak. The national story of slow recovery obscures the...

New applications for unemployment benefits rose last week but remained near eight-year lows. Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 21,000 to a seasonally adjusted 311,000 in the week ended Aug. 9, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was more than the 295,000 new claims forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and the highest level since June. Claims for the previous week were revised up slightly to 290,000. Applications for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs, have been trending lower this year. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, increased by 2,000 to...

On the surface, California's job market is booming. The state has now recovered all the jobs lost during the recession, and done so at a faster pace than all but five states. The growth, though, belies a troubling imbalance. The fastest job creation has come in low-wage sectors, in which pay has declined. At the high end of the salary scale, a different dynamic has taken hold: rising pay and improving employment after rounds of consolidation. Most distressing, middle-wage workers are losing out on both counts. "People talk about it like an hourglass," said Tracey Grose, vice president of the...

The share of unemployed Americans competing for each open job hit a six-year low in June, suggesting a labor market tightening that could give way to faster wage growth. The Labor Department's monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released on Tuesday gave an upbeat assessment of the job market that could sharpen the debate on the timing of the first interest rate increase from the Federal Reserve. The number of unemployed job seekers per open job fell to 2.02 in June, the lowest level since April 2008. The ratio was at 2.14 in May and is now below the...

Tragically, the inability of our institutions to impart the skills required by the emerging economy hobble not just the unemployed but employers. A reader recently offered a compelling reason why total compensation costs (wages plus benefits/payroll taxes) could rise even in a stagnant economy with millions available for work: many of those who have been out of work for a long time (or have yet to hold a formal job) are unqualified by experience and professionalism to perform the work that is available. This is a complex topic, so let's separate the key issues. 1. Inability to perform the available work successfully on...

Four in 10 U.S. households are straining financially five years after the Great Recession — many struggling with tight credit, soaring education debt and profound issues related to savings and retirement, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. The wide-ranging Fed study assessing the economic well-being of Americans shows that the economy has made progress to the point where most households said they were "living comfortably" or doing OK financially. But almost 40% reported last fall that their families were "just getting by" or struggling to do so, and more people said their financial situation was worse rather than better...

The Los Angeles Times ran a story titled “Freelance Workers a Growing Segment of California Economy” lamenting that millennials working part-time costs California $17 billion a year in tax revenue. Apart from the Times' bizarre comment that young people are somehow shirking their responsibility to pay more taxes by working odd jobs to survive, the real issue is that higher tax rates, labor rules and anti-business regulations, and Obamacare mandates have made hiring millennials for full-time work much more expensive. Businesses are increasingly adapting to higher government costs burdens by hiring the over 65-year-old seniors who are exempt from ObamaCare.The...

While the labor market has improved significantly since the depths of the recession in 2009, high underemployment may be an indication that the economy is still struggling. As of the first quarter of 2014, 13.4% of the nationÂ’s labor force was considered underemployed, meaning they were unemployed, were working only part-time despite wanting full-time jobs or would like a job but had given up on actively looking. The underemployment rate has dropped from its peak of 16.7% in 2010, which indicates that the labor market has improved. However, underemployment is still well above its pre-recession levels. Based on underemployment data...

The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell more than expected, fuelling optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday. In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending August 2 decreased by 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 289,000 from the previous week’s total of 303,000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 2,000 to 305,000 last week. Continuing jobless claims in the week ended July 26 fell to 2.518 million from 2.542 million...

Another month, another case where the primary age group of the US work force, those aged 25-54, gets shafted. According to the BLS' household survey, while overall July jobs rose, if modestly less than the 209K revealed by the establishment survey, there was no joy for those aged 25-54: historically the most important and highest earning age group (in case anyone is wondering where all that missing average hourly earnings growth is) within the US labor force. As the chart below shows, while all other age groups posted a jobs uptick, it was those 25-54 that saw a 142K...

11.4 million Americans age 16 and over have left the workforce since President Obama took office in January 2009, according to data released today from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). In July 2014, there were 92,001,000 Americans, 16 and over, who were classified as “not in the labor force,” meaning they not only did not have a job, but they didn’t actively seek one in the last four weeks. This number has increased by 11,472,000 since January 2009, when the number of Americans not in the labor force was 80,529,000. The number of Americans not in the labor force...

For all the fuss made and dollars spent it is not clear that the 2007-2009 recession was worse than the 1980-1982 downturn when Fed Chairman Paul Volker defeated inflation. For example, unemployment peaked at 10.8 percent then, higher than the 10 percent maximum in the most recent recession. However, this most recent recession and the weak recovery that has followed has been the undisputed champion for long-term unemployment. The U.S. government defines long-term unemployment as a period of unemployment that lasts 27 weeks or longer, roughly six months or more. While overall unemployment was relatively normal for a severe recession,...

Inflation, inflation, inflation! Obama and his merry band of propagandists can keep trying to smear lipstick on this historically, pathetic economy but the endless, reckless pumping by the Fed has resulted in a worthless dollar and mass inflation across the board. $6 for a pound of ground beef? A gallon of milk for $3.50! $4 gas for almost four years now? Oh yes, all is most definitely well! If the truth be known, the cost of owning and operating a business has nearly doubled since 2008. Energy costs are passed on to consumers, as is the fallout from a glut...

Here's a series of charts from reader Tim Wallace on various aspects of employment, labor force, and population. The charts use seasonally unadjusted data, July of 2014 compared to July in prior years. click on any chart for sharper image Age 16 and Over Age 16 and Over Full-Time Employment Percentage Age 25-54 Age 25-54 Full-Time Employment Percentage Age 55 and Over Age 55 and Over Full-Time Employment Percentage Mish Notes Because of the aging workforce, the first chart in each series has a slight negative bias. For example: Note a relatively small decline in population in age group 25-54...

While the media basks in the artificial light of a 4 percent GDP print for the second quarter, jobs continue to disappoint—and so does GDP. You wouldn’t know it, however,r by the way the media covers the economy. “The high-flying labor market showed no let-up in July,” writes USAToday, “as employers added 209,000 jobs.” Of course economists expected a bigger gain of 238,000 jobs, but you know: Who’s counting? Numbers and math are so overrated. We have gotten to the point that a missed estimate of 30,000 jobs is no big deal, while an uptick in unemployment is good...

The job market is still not the greatest, but we just got one hopeful sign that it might be improving a bit. The economy added 209,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate ticked up to 6.2 percent from 6.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. Believe it or not, both of those numbers are encouraging. The reason the first number is encouraging is because, duh, jobs. The encouraging part of the second number, the unemployment rate, is less obvious. Normally, higher unemployment is bad news, and people seeing HIGHER UNEMPLOYMENT on the evening news tonight will naturally...

U.S. job growth slowed more than expected in July and an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate pointed to some slack in the labor market that could give the Federal Reserve room to keep interest rates low for a while. Nonfarm payrolls increased 209,000 last month after surging by 298,000 in June, the Labor Department said on Friday. Data for May and June were revised to show a total of 15,000 more jobs created than previously reported, showing underlying momentum.

The number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week rose more than expected, dampening optimism over the strength of the labor market, official data showed on Thursday. In a report, the U.S. Department of Labor said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 26 increased by 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 302,000 from the previous week’s total of 279,000, which was the lowest since May 2000. Analysts had expected jobless claims to rise by 22,000 to 301,000 last week.

Layoffs in the technology sector could reach their highest level in five years, according to a group that tracks employments trends. So far this year, tech employers have announced plans to cut payrolls by 48,402, a 68 percent increase over the 28,883 layoffs announced during the same period in 2013, according to a special report released Monday by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. At the current rate, the 2014 year-end total could be the highest since 2009, when tech-sector job cuts hit 174,629. The highest total on record was 695,581 job cuts in 2001, when the tech bubble in the stock...