UPDATE: Worse Than Initially Reported! McDonald's Accounted For Half of New Hires! Nation's Jobs Report -- Horrendous: One-Third Of That Expected

Update

Today's jobs report is even worse that initially reported. One-half of all of May's new hires were accounted for by McDonald's. That is truly very, very scary.

McDonald’s ran a big hiring day on April 19 — after the Labor Department’s April survey for the payrolls report was conducted — in which 62,000 jobs were added. That’s not a net number, of course, and seasonal adjustment will reduce the Hamburglar impact on payrolls. (In simpler terms — restaurants always staff up for the summer; the Labor Department makes allowance for this effect.) Morgan Stanley estimates McDonald’s hiring will boost the overall number by 25,000 to 30,000. The Labor Department won’t detail an exact McDonald’s figure — they won’t identify any company they survey — but there will be data in the report to give a rough estimate.

Original Posting

Is there a better word that could be used? I don't know.

As you scan the data points below remember a few things:

• federal government permitorium in the oil industry continues; the federal response to the Gulf spill did more harm than good
• had it not been for Congress, Interior Secretary Salazar would have succeeded in even more job stagnation in the west
• small businesses subject to federal health care regulations once their company exceeds 50 employees
• productivity/worker continues to increase
• no evidence that federal regulatory environment moderating
• right-to-work issue involving Boeing and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
• federal government stimulus programs were mostly used to pay salaries of city, county, and state government workers; those stimulus programs have now run their course
• federal government stimulus programs failed to identify and/or channel money for shovel-ready projects

Link here and link here.

Some data points:

• Unemployment rate edged up to 9.1 percent, up from 9.0
• Employers hired only 54,000 new workers in May
• Analysts expected155,00 new jobs
• Fewest new hires in EIGHT months
• Associated Press, not known for hyperbole, used the word "startling"
• Associated Press, not known for hyperbole, used the phrase "weakened dramatically"
• Associated Press, not known for hyperbole, used the phrase "anemic pace of job creation"
• CNBC: hiring report "so bad"
• Obama's administration first comment: "we're on the right track" -- on CNBC at 8:34
• Obama's administration first comment: "private industry needs to create more jobs
• Obama's administration first comment: "we have to have cooperation from congress, private sector"
• Private sector hired ONLY 83,000 new workers in May: least in nearly a year (since last June)
• Analysts forecast private sector would hire 175,000 new workers
• Past three months: average of 220,000 new jobs
• May, 2011: only 83,000 new jobs
• Average for past four months if May included: 185,750

Local Government Sector

• Local government cut 28,000 jobs in May, the most since November (2010)
• 18,000 of the 28,000 local government jobs cut were in education
• Cities and counties have cut 466,000 positions since 2008

Manufacturing Sector

• Grew at its slowest page in 20 months
• Cut 5,000 jobs; first job loss number in that sector in seven months
• Auto industry lost 3,400 jobs in May

Other Sectors

• Retailers: cut 8,500 positions (after adding 64,000 in April)
• Leisure and hospitality: cut 6,000 jobs

Revised Numbers

• Government revised previous months' job totals to show 39,000 fewer jobs created in March and April than previously reported

Interesting New Number Being Reported by AP

• "The economy needs to generate at least 100,000 jobs each month just to keep up with population growth and prevent unemployment rate from rising."

This is the first time I have seen the "100,000" number. Up until now, we have been told that we need to see at least 400,000 new jobs each month to chip away at the 8 - 10 million unemployed. It appears the Associated Press with this story has subtly moved the goal posts:

• First, the AP has lowered the bar from 400,000/month to 100,000/month as a measure of success
• Second, the new measure of success: keep unemployment rate from rising (rather than chip away at the unprecedented number of unemployed in modern history)

Solutions? First things government could do --

• Work with oil and gas industry and ask what they need to hire more workers (help solve two problems: high unemployment and high gasoline prices)
• Raise the number from 50 to 1000 the number of employees a small business employs before it hits federal government regulatory environment
• Step away from cozy relationship with NLRB
• Enforce inter-state commerce laws already on the book
• ObamaCare waivers are given to anyone who requests a waiver (already a fact); those waivers are good for a year; they need to be open-ended
• Review global warming scientific data
• Fast track environmental impact statements