[82lsju]

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In August, an increase in government employment largely reflected temporary hiring for the 2020 Census. Notable job gains also occurred in retail trade, in professional and business services, in leisure and hospitality, and in education and health services.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

[82lsju]

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 1.4 million in August, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.4 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. These improvements in the labor market reflect the continued resumption of economic activity that had been curtailed due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and efforts to contain it. In August, an increase in government employment largely reflected temporary hiring for the 2020 Census. Notable job gains also occurred in retail trade, in professional and business services, in leisure and hospitality, and in education and health services.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

[Mick]

Yesterday's initial unemployment claims were 881,000, about 4x the normal level, and 130k less than last week's number.

While the number of employed people went up by 1.8 million, the number of people receiving a government unemployment check went up by by 2.2 million, to 29.2 million people.  One year ago, that figure was 1.639 million.

The labor force in the USA reached 164.6 million, just prior to the COVID pandemic.

29.2/164.6 = 17.7% of the workforce are receiving a government check.  Not sure how that tracks with 8.4% unemployment rate.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

It's almost as if Fed unemployment figures are bogus.  I'm sure that can't be right, Trump never, ever lies and I'm sure his government doesn't cook the books either...

[Mick]

Yesterday's initial unemployment claims were 881,000, about 4x the normal level, and 130k less than last week's number.

While the number of employed people went up by 1.8 million, the number of people receiving a government unemployment check went up by by 2.2 million, to 29.2 million people.  One year ago, that figure was 1.639 million.

The labor force in the USA reached 164.6 million, just prior to the COVID pandemic.

29.2/164.6 = 17.7% of the workforce are receiving a government check.  Not sure how that tracks with 8.4% unemployment rate.

https://www.dol.gov/ui/data.pdf

It's almost as if Fed unemployment figures are bogus.  I'm sure that can't be right, Trump never, ever lies and I'm sure his government doesn't cook the books either...

[BostonCard]

Some people left the labor force.

Also, the questions the government uses to ascertain whether someone counts as unemployed were designed for normal business cycles.  They weren't designed for a pandemic.  So, the BLS counts 13.6 million people as "unemployed", even though twice that number are getting an unemployment check.

The part that concerns me is "In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February"

My brother, who was furloughed in April and laid off last month is in that category, but he's hoping to get hired back.

BC

[BostonCard]

Some people left the labor force.

Also, the questions the government uses to ascertain whether someone counts as unemployed were designed for normal business cycles.  They weren't designed for a pandemic.  So, the BLS counts 13.6 million people as "unemployed", even though twice that number are getting an unemployment check.

The part that concerns me is "In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February"

My brother, who was furloughed in April and laid off last month is in that category, but he's hoping to get hired back.

BC

[Mick]

Some people left the labor force.

Also, the questions the government uses to ascertain whether someone counts as unemployed were designed for normal business cycles.  They weren't designed for a pandemic.  So, the BLS counts 13.6 million people as "unemployed", even though twice that number are getting an unemployment check.

The part that concerns me is "In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February"

My brother, who was furloughed in April and laid off last month is in that category, but he's hoping to get hired back.

BC

Best of luck to your brother, BC...hope he gets employed quickly. And Fed Chair Powell thinks job news is going well.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909627932...a-long-tim

I've had mixed success.  Of the eight I was forced to furlough, I've hired back three permanently, and a fourth is likely to be hired in 11 days.  Two were laid off permanently (not very sorry to see them go for a variety of reasons).  One other may be hired back by a different group.  The last is still on furlough.  There are two that I wanted to furlough that I was prevented from adding to the furlough list.  You may draw your own conclusions.

The thing is, my group, my existing employees has battle scars from the pandemic.  We're in a situation where business development is an imperative, yet we all took substantial salary cuts and were deprived of budget and people.  Technically, we were told no overtime.  Well, screw that.  Most of my people are working 60 hour weeks and have been for a while.  I've lost two to simple exhaustion.  Our team was basically abused by the billing professionals.  I have one BDM that worked 70 hours from M through F, and I told her to take the weekend off.  Her PG wasn't very happy, though there was no work that had to be done that weekend that couldn't be done on Monday.

The good news is that my team was ridiculously effective.  We were prepared for a 10% to 20% drop in gross revenue this year and we'll likely be between a 2% drop and a 1% gain.  On the other hand, any competitor that wants any of my overworked, underpaid staff can probably have them for a song, particularly my top half-dozen performers. 62% of the firms in our business neither furloughed people nor cut their salaries.  And my entire team knows it.

[Mick]

Some people left the labor force.

Also, the questions the government uses to ascertain whether someone counts as unemployed were designed for normal business cycles.  They weren't designed for a pandemic.  So, the BLS counts 13.6 million people as "unemployed", even though twice that number are getting an unemployment check.

The part that concerns me is "In August, the number of permanent job losers increased by 534,000 to 3.4 million; this measure has risen by 2.1 million since February"

My brother, who was furloughed in April and laid off last month is in that category, but he's hoping to get hired back.

BC

Best of luck to your brother, BC...hope he gets employed quickly. And Fed Chair Powell thinks job news is going well.

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/04/909627932...a-long-tim

I've had mixed success.  Of the eight I was forced to furlough, I've hired back three permanently, and a fourth is likely to be hired in 11 days.  Two were laid off permanently (not very sorry to see them go for a variety of reasons).  One other may be hired back by a different group.  The last is still on furlough.  There are two that I wanted to furlough that I was prevented from adding to the furlough list.  You may draw your own conclusions.

The thing is, my group, my existing employees has battle scars from the pandemic.  We're in a situation where business development is an imperative, yet we all took substantial salary cuts and were deprived of budget and people.  Technically, we were told no overtime.  Well, screw that.  Most of my people are working 60 hour weeks and have been for a while.  I've lost two to simple exhaustion.  Our team was basically abused by the billing professionals.  I have one BDM that worked 70 hours from M through F, and I told her to take the weekend off.  Her PG wasn't very happy, though there was no work that had to be done that weekend that couldn't be done on Monday.

The good news is that my team was ridiculously effective.  We were prepared for a 10% to 20% drop in gross revenue this year and we'll likely be between a 2% drop and a 1% gain.  On the other hand, any competitor that wants any of my overworked, underpaid staff can probably have them for a song, particularly my top half-dozen performers. 62% of the firms in our business neither furloughed people nor cut their salaries.  And my entire team knows it.