The number of people out of work for 27 weeks or longer -- the so-called long-term unemployed -- decreased as a percentage of all jobless to 32.8 percent, the lowest since June 2009.Elsewhere Reuters connected the dots: the decrease in long-term unemployed coincided with the end of benefits for the long-term unemployed. Imagine that.
These are the other numbers:
Job creation surged beyond expectations in June and the unemployment rate fell to an almost six-year low, underscoring the strength of a U.S. labor market that will help spur a rebound in growth.
That's huge.The addition of 288,000 jobs followed a 224,000 gain the prior month that was bigger than previously estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 215,000 advance. The number of long-term unemployed Americans fell to 3.1 million, showing they're having greater success finding work.
I think Reuters mentioned some time ago that more people working means there are more paychecks being cashed.
I see Bloomberg has continued to call the 1Q14 collapse (their word, not mine)is now nothing but a slump in the rear-view mirror. It's all hunky-dory from here on out. I think there was a lot of concern on Wall Street that the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court ruling was going to kill the job market. Maybe that's next month.
Let's see. The last data point: the four-week average -- it was probably in the article, but I couldn't find it and I have to move on.
Ummm... they don't count the people whose benefits have expired, that's why the numbers go up and look rosy. They didn't find jobs, they just don't get counted as unemployed anymore!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting, isn't it? There are so many ways to manipulate the data. Right, wrong, or indifferent, tracking the "numbers" and the narratives for the past few years has certainly helped me understand the reports a lot better.
Delete