On the heels of a great GDP report last week, the jobs numbers released today by the BLS are disappointing.  The good news is that 150,ooo new jobs were added to nonfarm employment. However, since 2020, we have gotten used to much larger increases in employment. For example, in the 12 preceding months, the economy…

Total nonfarm employment grew by 336,000 jobs in September, according to the latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  The big jump in employment  held keep the unemployment rate near historic lows, at just 3.8 percent.  The graph below shows total nonfarm employment in the U.S. since the beginning of 2012. The graph…

Today's jobs report brings more strong data and very little change from the past few reports. The unemployment rate (pictured below) remains at historically low levels, falling to 3.5% in July, and jobs growth remains robust, with 187K new jobs added. On the other hand, the strong unemployment rate is probably overstating the overall health…

Omicron was supposed to derail the economic recovery but January employment data suggest otherwise.  The Employment Situation Summary, affectionately known as "The Jobs Report," for January estimates job gains of 567,000 in January, far exceeding expectations.  The graph below shows nonfarm employment since January 2012. As a benchmark, a good month of labor market growth…

The latest jobs report from the BLS is one of those weird times when the unemployment rate falls even while the overall report is not positive.  All of this stems from this strange and uneven recovery from the COVID-19 recession in 2020.   Let's start with the good.  The graph below shows the unemployment rate over…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Employment Situation Report this morning, as they generally do on the first Friday of the month. Throughout this semester, we follow at these reports and look closely at the number of jobs added, the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate. In the month of January, the…

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to just 4.2% in September, the lowest rate since 2001, according to the latest Employment Situation summary published by the BLS today.  Additionally, the labor force participation rate increased to 63.1%. The highest level since March 2014. Even though the labor participation rate is still 3 percentage points lower than…

The March jobs report was released by the BLS this morning.  The real news is that the economic recovery continues.  In terms of data, the unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent, the lowest level since May 2007 (nearly ten years!).  That is the good news. But while the unemployment rate dropped, the number of jobs…