The real jobs growth story
96,666 jobs/month. That’s what the actual job growth has been for the last six months — much less than you might otherwise think. Here are the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, showing the mostly-downwards revisions a month or two after the initial reports:
- March 2012: 120,000 (March report) revised to 154,000 (April report) revised to 143,000 (May report) — net adjustment of +23,000 jobs
- April 2012: 115,000 (April report) revised to 77,000 (May report) revised to 68,000 (June report) — net adjustment of -47,000 jobs
- May 2012: 69,000 (May report) revised to 77,000 (June report) revised to 87,000 (July report) — net adjustment of +18,000 jobs
- June 2012: 80,000 (June report) revised to 64,000 (July report) revised to 45,000 (August report) — net adjustment of -35,000 jobs
- July 2012: 163,000 (July report) revised to 141,000 (August report) — net adjustment of -23,000 jobs
- August 2012: 96,000 (August report)
It is possible that July and/or August could be revised upward, but given the overall trend, I suspect it will be downwards, if at all. As it stands right now, the total number of jobs added over the past six months (March-August) is 143,000 + 68,000 + 87,000 + 45,000 + 141,000 + 96,000 = 580,000 jobs which equals 96,666 jobs/month.
In other words, it not just that August’s numbers are bad — they’ve been bad for half a year. ..bruce w..
Category: 2012 Election, Economics, Main, Obama Administration
About the Author (Author Profile)
Webster is Principal and Founder at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at bwebster@bfwa.com, or you can follow him on Twitter as @bfwebster.Subscribe
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