Posted on 05/03/2013 8:19:05 AM PDT by montag813
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The April employment report exceeded expectations, with 165,000 jobs created and a welcome drop in the unemployment rate to 7.5%.
But there was a dark side to the report: Total hours worked fell sharply, and the total amount of money earned by U.S. workers actually declined from the month before.
“Aggregate weekly hours”....As the name implies, it measures the total number of hours worked, which is what matters for sizing up overall growth in the economy.
Usually, we focus just on the number of new jobs created and the unemployment rate, but the number of hours we work matters just as much, if not more, to our economic well-being.
Hours worked in April fell 0.4%, equivalent to the loss of more than 500,000 jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at marketwatch.com ...
We've already seen the reports of restaurants and retail stores cutting back hours because of Obamacare. I agree that the trend will accelerate.
Don't look for the BLS or the media to talk about the conversion of full time jobs to part time jobs. Mum's the word...
The magic of ObamaCare....converting full-time jobs into part-time jobs. This is a disaster for the nation.
No problem. Government will just boost the minimum wage to match the lower hours. Less work, same Obamabucks
Agree
We now live in a part-time economy.
See Karl Denninger’s math :
“If you lose 12 minutes from the work week (.2 of an hour) across the entire workforce of 143.224M, then the total decline in worked minutes is 1.719B; divide this by 2,400 minutes ( 40 hour work week times 60 minutes) = 716k net equivalent lost jobs.”
Don’t worry. According to Leibniz and Newton, you will eventually make 30 hours per week.
And the stock market climbs even though sales volume is declining for most companies. These companies are simply showing higher profits because they're shedding workers and reducing hours faster than their sales volumes are dropping.
This looks like a classic deflationary cycle to me.
Low info voters got the same amount loaded onto their EBT cards last month as they did the month before, but they didn’t have to work as many hours. They see it as a ‘win’.
This angel is even worse. The gain in hours is in sectors that are professionals, so no earning gains. Losses occurred in hourly jobs.... source: the article has a click through chart...
Obama is leading the charge to make 15 hour work weeks the norm. His underlying philosophy is "lead by example"
He's following the Clinton model...brings to mind an often heard saying during the Clinton years...
..."I believe Bill Clinton created 22 million jobs...I've got three of them..."
My fault. I hired two cashiers and one stock boy this
hiring’ season. Slightly above minimum wage, 20+ hours a week.
That’s all the wiggle room I had.
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