Posted on 05/03/2013 1:27:47 PM PDT by whitedog57
Good News! Non-farm payrolls increase by 165,000 and the unemployment rate declined to 7.5%.
Bad News! It had to be helped by a 193,000 increase due to the BLS Birth/Death adjustment.
May 3 (Bloomberg) — Employment picked up more than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, showing federal budget cuts failed to destabilize the U.S. labor market.
Payrolls expanded by 165,000 workers last month following a revised 138,000 increase in March that was larger than first estimated. The median forecast of 90 economists projected a 140,000 gain. Revisions added a total of 114,000 jobs to the employment count in February and March.
The BLS’ Net Birth/Death Adjustment added 193,000 all by its lonesome.
Although unemployment declined, U6 unemployment rose to 13.9%.
And labor force participation remained the same.
Civilian employment to population ratio actually increased!
The employment to population ratio tracks the Case-Shiller 20 house price index.
And here is where the job creation was … or wasn’t.
The US economy added 165,000 jobs but US businesses paid $323.2 million less in total wage compensation. Aggregate weekly hours worked in retail plunged by 0.7% in April, which is the equivalent of cutting 11,000 jobs.
And the market celebrated the good news with a 12 basis point gain in the US 10 year Treasury yield.
Only the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) saw a decline in sovereign yields. Everyone else was up.
And US equity markets are celebrating as well.
I am not sure that they should be celebrating.
Those gubmint boys sure are good with numbers. No wonder Americans are all going broke.
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