Posted on 09/02/2009 12:38:31 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The pace of U.S. job losses slowed last month, a report released Wednesday showed, but the small improvement suggests a return to job growth could still be many months away.
Service-sector employment declined by 146,000 in August while goods-producing jobs including construction and manufacturing fell by 152,000, according to Automatic Data Processing Inc., a payroll firm.
The combined loss of 298,000 jobs was an improvement from July's revised drop of 360,000 and was less than half the pace of declines seen earlier this year.
Meanwhile, revised figures showed worker productivity was even stronger than initially reported during the spring, growing at a 6.6% annualized rate, though it resulted from companies' cutting workers or their hours.
"If you're a worker you don't really want to see productivity growing for the reasons it did in the second quarter," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR Inc., a New York-based consulting firm.
He and others say productivity will likely slow during the second half of the year as companies moderate the steepness of their cutbacks amid gradual improvement in business conditions. Already, employers are shedding fewer workers.
Still, many were hoping to see more of an improvement in August now that key sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and the housing market, are showing some encouraging signs.
Indeed, a separate Commerce Department report Wednesday showed factory orders in July rose 1.3% from the prior month, the biggest gain in a year, to $355.5 billion, following a 0.9% increase in June.
The ADP figures "continue to suggest that net job losses are slowing but that we're still some way from the point where labor market will begin to create jobs," said John Ryding of New York-based RDQ Economics.
The private-payrolls report suggested "some downside risk" to the government's official August employment report,
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Wish there were more good news, but ... NO.
Unemployment Won’t Be Falling Anytime Soon
September 02, 2009 10:03 AM ET | Matthew Bandyk
The new ADP report shows a bigger than expected drop in private sector employment for August. The Journal reports that most economists predict the official unemployment will tick back up to 9.5 percent, after a slight decline to 9.4 percent in July.
The numbers on private sector employment are probably worse than they sound because what they suggest for discouraged workers and other “marginally affected” workers. As I recently wrote about, the unemployment rate doesn’t capture just how bad labor markets are because they don’t count workers who gave up looking for work or those who were forced to go part-time. When private sector employment is dropping, it’s a safe bet that more people will have to give up looking for work for lack of opportunity, and that more people will have to take part-time positions for lack of full-time work. So the unemployment rate plus the number of “marginally affected” workers is likely to stay above the levels of the early 80s recession.
In other unemployment news, the BLS released its unemployment numbers on metropolitan areas for July. The two metro areas with more than 1 million people that have the lowest unemployment rates are Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C., two capitals.
There’s no recovery until the job market improves, end of story. Obama, I hope you have Crisco in the White House kitchen, because you’re gonna need it in 2010 and 2012.
Someone posted this on the US NEWS and WORLD REPORT SITE :
Democrats... must be thrilled, considering they have to rely on the misery of the average American in order to gain votes.
Improvement?? I am sorry but the good news is you'll only lose one limb this month after losing two last month.
Well, sure, eventually they will run out of people to lay off!
we laid off 5 last week and cut salary’s yet again for all the others....i have lost 25% in the last few monthes...i am now at a point where i will have to find another job that pays more or take a part time job to make up the difference....
We are down to 4 day work weeks.
I had been planning for an event like this since Oct 2008 and had stashed emergency cash away to ride out the downturn.
I just don’t know how long this downturn will last.
We just cut someone today, someone who’d been with the company for decades.
Yup, pretty much the same here; borderline maxed-out with multitasking, and those that are left are timing-out with nowhere to go!
my other half is out of work so with the hit on pay i took its making it really hard....tried to cash out 401k and pay the taxes...they said no, i could have a loan which equals another monthly bill or i have to wait until i default on payments and send them letters from creditors showing hardship...good lord...don’t let people use their own money to prevent themselves from going down the drain....
So, how is that "hopie-changie" thing working for you?
"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. I have some good news and some bad news."
"The good news is that the heroic crew has slowed the rate at which the Titanic is taking on water."
I'm not trying to make a joke, especially about a tragedy like the Titanic. I'm trying to illustrate how stupid this "losing only x jobs is an improvement" reporting is.
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