US employment – the real story

Markets did relatively little on Friday’s US NFP employment figures as they were in line with expectations and seemed ‘good’.  217,000 jobs were added and the unemployment rate stayed steady.  However, yet again, most jobs added were either ‘assumed’ in the birth/death adjustments or low paying and the rate is courtesy of more people dropping out of looking.  

The graph below puts it into perspective.  It has taken until now just to recoup the jobs lost since the GFC (but many of those are replacing higher paid with lower paid and part time jobs) and, wait for it… 12.8m have left the workforce.  You could essentially take that 140,000 jobs per month off the 180-200,000 ‘new’ jobs they report each month.  All rejoice the great recovery.