Friday, March 9, 2012

It's The Economy Stupid: Payrolls, Unemployment, Hourly Earnings, Underemployment, Lawdy! Lawdy!

Payrolls are increasing, that’s a good thing. Average Hourly Earnings are increasing.  That’s a very good thing.  The Unemployment Rate was unched (that’s Geek Speak for unchanged), which probably means that payrolls need to increase even more and even faster.  The Underemployment Rate actually decreased from 15.1% in January to 14.9% in February. The underemployment rate includes people who aren't working or looking for work, but want a job, and those who are working part-time because they can't find a full-time position.

The underemployment rate is higher percentage than the unemployment rate because it includes a broader group of workers than those who are counted as unemployed.  A worker is considered underemployed when they are working at a job they are over-qualified for, working part-time when they would prefer full-time work, or working at a low-wage job when they could, if jobs were available, be working more hours.  So let’s hope that the divergence of the Unemployment and the Underemployment numbers means that more part time jobs are being converted to full time jobs and/or working more hours at a greater pay rate.

 

 

Economic Event

Period

Economic Survey

Actual Reported

Original Prior

Revised Prior

Trade Balance

JAN

-$49.0B

-$52.6B

-$48.6B

-$50.4B

Change in Nonfarm Payrolls

FEB

210K

227K

243K

284K

Change in Private Payrolls

FEB

225K

233K

257K

285K

Change in Manufact. Payrolls

FEB

24K

31K

50K

52K

Unemployment Rate

FEB

8.3%

8.3%

8.3%

-

Avg Hr Earning MoM All Emp

FEB

0.2%

0.1%

0.2%

0.1%

Avg Hr Earning YoY All Emp

FEB

2.0%

1.9%

1.9%

1.8%

Avg Weekly Hours All Emp

FEB

34.5

34.5

34.5

-

Underemployment Rate

FEB

 

14.9%

15.1%

-

 

 

 

John Broussard

Assistant State Treasurer

Chief Investment Officer

State of Louisiana

Department of the Treasury

Ph:  225-342-0013

Fx:  225-342-9721

Email:  jbroussard@treasusry.state.la.us

 

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