Posted on 03/09/2018 12:02:28 PM PST by SeekAndFind
The U.S. economy did more than give jobs to 313,000 in February — it brought nearly three times that amount off the sidelines, where more than 95 million Americans still sit.
Inside the glittering nonfarm payrolls report the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Friday were some even more inspiring numbers. Skilled labor positions surged with big increases in construction and manufacturing, which has seen its best three-month period since 1984.
On a bigger-picture level, there was even more.
The labor force surged by 806,000, the biggest move since September 2003, and now sits just below 162 million. That's due to 653,000 people no longer counted as being out of the labor force and a growth of 785,000 folks reporting to be at work, according to the government's household survey. The labor force participation rate rose to 63 percent while the employment-to-population ratio rose to 60.4 percent, both the highest since September.
It was all part of a jobs market that continues to defy expectations. Every time economists or officials at the Federal Reserve pronounce the U.S. at "full employment," a report seems to come out indicating that there's still plenty of room for growth.
"What companies have been trying to do over the six months is solving this Rubik's Cube, trying to figure out what we have to do to get those people off the bench to participate," said Bill Ravenscroft, senior vice president at Adecco Staffing. "If we continue this type of [payrolls] growth this is going to be the catalyst for a wage spike."
A jump in earnings was not a part of the February jobs report.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Remember, the liberal view is that these trends have nothing to do with Trump policies or the tax bill.
The liberal view, is that Obama presided over economic stagnation, but planted seeds of economic development which are sprouting only now.
Liberals will really have a cow when the unemployment rate goes negative.
Paychecks might be flat but that doesn’t mean compensation is flat. The increase in costs of employee benefits over the last ten years has been staggering.
I see the reality of it in our newspapers around here. Full of jobs. Many of them good jobs.
Every establishment around here has a help wanted sign up. Companies are buying ads, putting up billboards and hosting job fairs.
But we’re a little spooked about tariffs since this is a big manufacturing area.
Labor force participation: that stat the MSM never talked about when Obama was touting his unemployment rate “achievement”.
I understand that about 2 tons of steel goes into making the average automobile. A ton of steel costs about 700 bucks. That means 1400 in the car is the cost of steel as of last year. If you add 25% to that, it makes the cost of the steel in a car 1750 bucks.
The average car costs about 32k last year. This steel difference will increase the cost from 32,000 to 32,350.
I don’t think the average car buyer would know the difference. Besides, the average car in 2018 is 33k.
It’s a very misleading statistic because the denominator in that % includes retirees who are out of the work force because they WANT to be.
It took quite a lot to get people back to work. We were really looking into the economic abyss.
As illegals go home, wages will go up. In the Midwest, (outside of Dem-controlled Illinois) it is an employees market right now.
Even the Chik-fil-A near the office is offering 14.50 to START, and cannot find enough help.
The use of Trump’s magnificent Magic Wand is even causing retail employment to begin rising, as well!
Also wives staying home, teenagers and young adults in school, etc.
But on the whole it is very useful. The most significant effect of the recession of 2008-10 was that this rate crashed, very badly, and it has not really recovered since.
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
This latest uptick is still just that, and very minor. TBD.
democrat heads cracking. Did you notice that at no time did Trump blame the situation he inherited on his predecessor? He just rushed in and solved the problem.
Bammy refused to do anything about the job problem, blaming it on Bush.
This increase is in spite of millions of baby boomers retiring. It is excellent news.
Those reporting more Help Wanted signs are seeing the same thing I am seeing.
Imagine what the scene will be like when the workers in the higher paying industries hit their stride and start new purchases. Most are probably paying down the the debt incurred while un/under employed.
We love you Donald J Trump.
The labor participation rate isn't going to rise very much until the Baby Boomers are institutionalized and/or pass away.
Your estimate is based on zero sum math. In reality, the foreign exporters will drop prices to remain competitive with the expanded domestic capacity. Expanded domestic capacity also tends to lower costs. Prices don’t go up one to one with tariff rates.
Labor participation rates are based on people under retirement age, therefore boomers retiring has the opposite effect of what you claim, as the number of working age people is decreasing while the number of overall jobs is increasing. From 2008 to early 2017 we had jobs disappearing faster than the boomers could reach 65.
Civilian Labor Force is the sum of civilian employment and civilian unemployment. These individuals are civilians (not members of the Armed Services) who are age 16 years or older, and are not in institutions such as prisons, mental hospitals, or nursing homes.
I was surprised to learn this, but the numbers actually DO include retirees -- as long as they are not institutionalized.
Thanks SeekAndFind. More of Pelosi's crumbs.
Yeah, my bad. I could have sworn I read somewhere it excluded over 65, but that clearly is not the case. Another garbage statistic produced by the Federal Government, quelle surprise.
So I tested your theory, backing out Social Security retirement recipients from the labor force and the not working columns over the last 10 years. Virtually all of the drop in participation rate is accounted for by increase in workers going on social security.
There could be some trends in collecting at 62 versus 65 or collecting Social Security and still working to explore, but back of the envelope (literally, I jotted down the numbers on an envelope) calculation says you’re right.
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