From the Bonddad blog:
- by New Deal democrat
HEADLINES:
- +242,000 jobs added to the economy
With the expansion firmly established, the focus has shifted to wages and the chronic heightened unemployment. Here's the headlines on those:
- U3 unemployment rate unchanged at 4.9%
Wages and participation rates
- Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now: down -103,000 from 5.973 million to 5.870 million
- Part time for economic reasons: unchanged at 5.988
- Employment/population ratio ages 25-54: up +0.1% from 77.7% to 77.8%
December and January were revised upward by +9,000 and +22,000, for a net change of +31,000.
- Average Weekly Earnings for Production and Nonsupervisory Personnel: unchanged at $21.32, up +2.4%YoY. (Note: you may be reading different information about wages elsewhere. They are citing average wages for all private workers. I use wages for nonsupervisory personnel, to come closer to the situation for ordinary workers.)
The more leading numbers in the report tell us about where the economy is likely to be a few months from now. These were neutral to negative.
- the average manufacturing workweek was unchanged at 41.8 hours (but last month was revised up +0.1. This is one of the 10 components of the LEI, the net will be a posittive.
- construction jobs increased.by +19,000. YoY construction jobs are up +253,000.
- manufacturing jobs decreased by -16,000, and are up +25,000 YoY.
- Professional and business employment (generally higher-paying jobs) increased by +23,000 and are up 604,000 YoY.
- temporary jobs - a leading indicator for jobs overall decreased by -9,800.
Other important coincident indicators help us paint a more complete picture of the present:...MORE
- the number of people unemployed for 5 weeks or less - a better leading indicator than initial jobless claims - increased by +48,000 from 2,249,000 to 2.297,000. The post-recession low was set 6 months ago at 2,095,000.
