Another Bizarro Jobs Report – Payrolls Rise 272,000 Employment Drop 408,000 -

Another Bizarro Jobs Report – Payrolls Rise 272,000 Employment Drop 408,000

Jun 07, 2024Jeremy ParkinsonFinance0

Nonfarm payrolls and employment levels from the BLS, chart by Mish.In reaction to the allegedly hot jobs report, bond yields are down across the board as I type.The 10-year and 5-year treasury yields are up 14 basis points as of 9:20 AM Eastern. Gold is down $49. But the stock markets are down only slightly.Jobs vs EmploymentFrom September 2020 through early 2022, nonfarm payroll job gains and full time employment changes tracked together.Starting around March of 2022, a divergence between employment and jobs became very noticeable, and I have been discussing the divergence since then.Payrolls vs Employment Gains Since May 2023

Nonfarm Payrolls: 2,756,000

Employment Level: +376,000

Full-Time Employment: -1,163,000

In the last year, jobs are up 2.8 million while full-time employment is down 1.2 million.Payrolls vs Employment Gains Since May 2022

Nonfarm Payrolls: 6,615,000

Employment Level: +2,769,000

Full-Time Employment:+588,000

In the last two years, jobs are up by 6.6 million with full-time employment up 0.6 million, a discrepancy of only 6 million. The rise in total payrolls is about 3.8 million more than the rise in employment.No amount of BLS smoothing can hide this, but hardly anyone discusses it.Job Report Details

Nonfarm Payroll: +272,000 to 158,543,000 – Establishment Survey

Civilian Non-institutional Population: +182,000 to 268,248,000

Civilian Labor Force: -250,000 to 167,732,000 – Household Survey

Participation Rate: -0.1 to 62.5% – Household Survey

Employment: -408,000 to 161,083,000 – Household Survey

Unemployment: +157,000 to 6,649,000- Household Survey

Baseline Unemployment Rate: +0.1 to 4.0% – Household Survey

Not in Labor Force: +433,000 to 100,516 – Household Survey

U-6 unemployment: +0.0 to 7.4% – Household Survey

Nonfarm Payroll Change by Sector
Government and Health Services are related to the surge of illegal immigrants and the need to address them.Social assistance jobs, a subcategory of private education and health services, rose by 12,000 in January; 24,000 in February; 9,000 in March; and 40,000 in April, and 15,000 in May.Government jobs rose by 60,000 in January; 55,000 in February; 78,000 in March; 7,000 in April, and 43,000 in May.Change in Nonfarm Payrolls January 2022 to February 2024
Monthly Revisions

The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for March was revised down by 5,000, from +315,000 to +310,000.

The change for April was revised down by 10,000, from +175,000 to +165,000.

With these revisions, employment in March and April combined is 15,000 lower than previously reported.

Part-Time Jobs

Involuntary Part-Time Work: -50,000 to 4,419,000

Voluntary Part-Time Work: -+409,000 to 22,662,000

Total Full-Time Work: -625,000 to 133,264,000

Total Part-Time Work: +286,000 to 28,004,000

The above numbers never total correctly due to the way the BLS makes seasonal adjustments. I list them as reported.Hours and WagesThis data is frequently revised.

Average weekly hours of all private employees is flat at 34.3 hours.

Average weekly hours of all private service-providing employees was flat at 33.2 hours.

Average weekly hours of manufacturers was flat at 40.1 hours.

An overall decline or rise of a tenth of an hour does not sound line much, but with employment over 160 million, it’s more significant than it appears at first glance.Hourly EarningsThis data is also frequently revised. Here are the numbers as reported this month.Average Hourly Earnings of All Nonfarm Workers rose $0.14 to $34.91. A year ago the average wage was $33.54. That’s a gain of 4.1%.Average hourly earnings of Production and Nonsupervisory Workers rose $0.14 to $29.99. A year ago the average wage was $28.79. That’s a gain of 4.2%.Year-over-year wages are keeping up with year-over-year inflation after underperforming for many months.Unemployment Rate BLS unemployment data, chart by MishThe unemployment rate hit a 50-year low in January and April of 2023 at 3.4 percent. It’s now 4.0 percent.The unemployment rate has bottomed this cycle and will generally head higher.Alternative Measures of Unemployment Table A-15 Alternative Measures of Labor, chart from BLSTable A-15 is where one can find a better approximation of what the unemployment rate really is.The official unemployment rate is 4.0%.U-6 is much higher at 7.4%. Both numbers would be way higher still, were it not for millions dropping out of the labor force over the past few years.Some of those dropping out of the labor force retired because they wanted to retire. Some dropped out over Covid fears and never returned. Still others took advantage of a strong stock market and retired early.The rest is disability fraud, forced retirement (need for Social Security income), and discouraged workers.Birth Death ModelStarting January 2014, I dropped the Birth/Death Model charts from this report.The birth-death model pertains to the birth and death of corporations not individuals except by implication.For those who follow the numbers, I retain this caution: Do not subtract the reported Birth-Death number from the reported headline number. That approach is statistically invalid.The model is wrong at economic turning points and is also heavily revised and thus essentially useless.Birth-Death Methodology ExplainedEvery month this subject comes up. I gave a detailed explanation of the model and why the hype is wrong in my December 8, 2023 post How Much Did the Huge 412,000 Birth-Death Adjustment Impact October’s Job Report?The month does not matter. If you think the model has a big impact, please click on the above link for why it doesn’t.Household Survey vs. Payroll Survey

The payroll survey (sometimes called the establishment survey) is the headline jobs number. It is based on employer reporting.

The household survey is a phone survey conducted by the BLS. It measures employment, unemployment and other factors.

If you work one hour, you are employed. If you don’t have a job and fail to look for one, you are not considered unemployed, rather, you drop out of the labor force.Looking for job openings on Jooble or Monster or in the want ads does not count as “looking for a job”. You need an actual interview or send out a resume.These distortions artificially lower the unemployment rate, artificially boost full-time employment, and artificially increase the payroll jobs report every month.Can the Jobs and Employment Numbers Both Be Reasonably Correct?The answer is yes (discounting measurement error) because they measure different things. A person working three part time jobs counts for three jobs but only a single person employed.I have repeatedly asked ADP to account for duplicate social security numbers but they won’t. Amusingly, the BLS wants to, but the employees tell me they can’t because “they don’t have access to the data for security reasons.”This is a simple sort-merge program but alas, we depend on a phone survey for employment numbers.Notably, discrepancies like these don’t last for years unless there is some truth to the employment numbers because measurement errors are random. Also, the unemployment rate is based off the same set of numbers.Closing Thoughts on the May Jobs ReportThe discrepancy between jobs and employment is persistent and rising.These monthly jobs reports (CES – Current Employment Statistics) are based on a 5.6 percent sample of the data. Job numbers based on the entire data (QCEW – Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages) lag by about 5 months.The most recent QCEW data is from December of 2023.2022 Q4-2023 Q4 CES vs QCEW

CES: 155,211,000 to 158,269,000 (+3.06 million)

QCEW: 152,525,000 to 154,848,000 (+2.32 million)

CES reports 32 percent more job gains in 2023 vs QCEW.Nonfarm Payrolls NSA Minus QCEW
The BLS does not revise the previously reported numbers in its annual benchmark adjustments making the historical charts, including my lead chart, wrong. Jobs are overstated on all the charts.For discussion of the difference between QCEW and the monthly jobs report please see How Much Does the BLS Overstate Monthly Jobs?Finally, the rising trend in payrolls vs QCEW corresponds to the rising discrepancy between jobs and payrolls.Expect more negative revisions to the monthly jobs reports.More By This Author:GDPNow Had A Significant Bounce From Its June 3 Low, What Happened? How Much Does The BLS Overstate Monthly Jobs? Here’s the AnswerWhat Are The CPI And PCE Numbers To Beat That Support A Fed Rate Cut?