By: Dr. Mike Campbell
US Department of Labor figures for August have shown that the jobless total has risen for the third consecutive month. In the course of August 54000 jobs were lost. The figure means that the US jobless level has crept up by 0.1% to 9.6% from where it stood in July.
If you look hard enough, every cloud has a silver lining and the silver lining in this month’s figures was that the private sector had managed to generate 67000 jobs during the month. The growth in private sector employment was larger than analysts had expected. It is welcome news since the private sector is more dynamic in terms of its hiring cycle than the public sector and it is seen as an encouraging sign.
President Obama welcomed the news of the growth in private sector positions, but clearly remained unsatisfied about the larger picture. The Administration is due to announce further measures to boost employment later in the week. The Department of Labor also revised the jobless figures that had been published in June and July downwards from 221,000 to 175,000 in July and 131,000 to 54,000 in June. Obviously, this does not reflect the creation of new jobs, but rather corrects short comings in the data evaluation systems being used.
The downturn in public sector employment in August was responsible for the loss of 121000 jobs. Of these, 114000 had been temporary public employees who had been taken on to help with the current US census.
Manufacturing sector jobs fell by 27000 which bodes badly for the recovery, but this was contradicted by a growth in both construction and mining sectors. Some 28000 jobs were created within the healthcare sector. The bottom line is that with unemployment hovering about the 10% level, job growth from the fledgling US recovery has yet to feed through in any meaningful way.