July Jobs Report: Booming Jobs Market, And A Surge In Participation Continues To Depress Wage Growth


HEADLINES:

  • +157,000 jobs added
  • U3 unemployment rate down -0.1% from 4.0% to 3.9%
  • U6 underemployment rate down -0.3% from 7.8% to 7.5% (new expansion low)
  • Here are the headlines on wages and the broader measures of underemployment:

    Wages and participation rates

  • Not in Labor Force, but Want a Job Now:  down -95,000 from 5.258 million to 5.163 million
  • Part time for economic reasons: down -176,000 from 4.743 million to 4.567 million (new expansion low)
  • Employment/population ratio ages 25-54: up 0.2% from 79.3% to 79.5% (new expansion high)
  • Average Weekly Earnings for Production and Nonsupervisory Personnel: rose $.03 from  $22.62 to $22.65, up +2.7% 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.)
  • Holding Trump accountable on manufacturing and mining jobs

     Trump specifically campaigned on bringing back manufacturing and mining jobs.  Is he keeping this promise?  

  • Manufacturing jobs rose +37,000 for an average of +29,000/month in the past year vs. the last seven years of Obama’s presidency in which an average of 10,300 manufacturing jobs were added each month.
  • Coal mining jobs were unchanged for an average of +100/month vs. the last seven years of Obama’s presidency in which an average of -300 jobs were lost each month
  • May was revised upward by +24,000. June was also revised upward by +35,000, for a net change of +59,000.

    The more leading numbers in the report tell us about where the economy is likely to be a few months from now. These were positive.

  • the average manufacturing workweek was unchanged at 40.9 hours.  This is one of the 10 components of the LEI.
  • construction jobs increased by +19,000. YoY construction jobs are up +308,000.
  • temporary jobs increased by +27,900.
  • the number of people unemployed for 5 weeks or less decreased by -136,000 from 2,227,000 to 2,091,000.  The post-recession low was set two months ago at 2,034,000.
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