Bummer -- April 3, 2015; Another Record For Number Of Americans Not In The Labor Force -- The Good News? Unemployment Rate Remains Unchanged

Updates

• Later, 1:36 p.m. CT: it took awhile for the media to pick up on this, but this is really a horrendous report -- the jobs report -- and coming just before summer when jobs should be picking up, not to mention eight years into the recovery and a gazillion dollars in stimulus. Here are the headlines that are now coming out with regard to the jobs report:
• record 93 million Americans NOT working
• record 12 million blacks not in labor force
• record 56 million women not in labor force
• January, February jobs numbers revised down dramatically
• Fed cuts growth forecast to zero

Something tells me Janet Yellen is not ready to raise rates quite yet.

I did not read all of the articles completely, but I bet none of them mentioned the anti-business climate in the US, exemplified mostly by a) ObamaCare; and, b) mandates to raise the minimum wage. 

[The numbers seem to call into question that McDonalads, Wal-Mart, et al are raising their wages because of the tightening labor market. Not likely.]
 
Original Post
Business Insider is reporting: huge miss on the jobs report.

The jobs report was a big miss. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added 126,000 jobs in March, way less than the expected gain of 245,000 jobs.

This ends the 12-month streak of payroll gains over 200,000, and is the lowest number of monthly job gains since December 2013.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5% in March.

The report showed that jobs gains continued to trend up in most industries, though jobs in the mining sector — which included oil-related jobs — saw a decline of 11,000 jobs in March. This sector has lost 30,000 jobs this year after adding 41,000 jobs in 2014.

Payroll gains in January and February were also revised lower, with February's gains falling to 264,000 from 295,000 and January's additions falling to 201,000 from 239,000. 

Over the last three months, job gains have averaged 197,000 per month. 

Remember the magic numbers:

First time claims, unemployment benefits: 400,000 (> 400,000: economic stagnation)

New jobs: 200,000 (< 200,000 new jobs: economic stagnation)

Economists estimate the labor market needs to create about 125,000 jobs a month to keep the unemployment rate steady, though estimates vary -- Reuters.

Eight years into the recovery, a gazillion dollars in stimulus, and average job gain for past three months is less than 200,000 -- a number widely accepted as required to prevent economic stagnation.

And this is why the unemployment rate remains unchanged:

More Americans dropped out of the labor force last month, as the number of people not in the labor force hit another record high in March.

According to Friday’s Bureau of Labor Statics jobs data 93,175,000 Americans were not in the work force in March, an addition of 277,000 to February’s level of 92,898,000.