Anyone watching the employment reports for the signs of a recovery may have found a bit of happy news this week. It was reported that only 10,000 jobs were lost in November, and this actually sounds like a pretty good number when its compared to the hundreds of thousands of lost jobs that had become the norm.
Despite this “recovery,” the unemployment rate remains right at 10% (although the fact that any total decline in jobs results in an improved unemployment rate is suspect in itself.)
Inside the details of this latest jobs report are some true gems to help us truly understand what is going on with the labor markets in America:
In November, employment fell in construction, manufacturing, and information, while temporary help services and health care added jobs.
Not only are we employing fewer people to build and make stuff, we’re also losing jobs in technology and information services. The latest trend toward outsourcing is high-tech – and online jobs are increasingly headed to Asia.
Month over month, the absolute number continues decline, and the depth of our current economic troubles becomes clear:
So the only employment “gains” in November are temporary jobs for Christmas – this means ringing cash registers at minimum wage or sitting in a fake beard and asking someone’s kids what they want for Christmas. At least the department store Santa won’t have to tell the little ones that they probably won’t be getting what they want this year…
Meanwhile, the health industry also continues to grow – a necessary cost but one that is having a disproportionate drain on America’s spending capacity. Where most nations contain health costs to under 10% of GDP, we have almost doubled those averages and we’re headed toward a situation where 1 in 5 dollars spent in our economy is for some kind of medicine or medical attention. Of course that’s great news for anyone in med school, but its bad news for employers or anyone who is paying for insurance out of their own pockets.