With the Atlanta Fed’s GDP forecast reduced to 0.2 percent growth in the first quarter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was unable to come up with another high payroll jobs report. Another orchestration couldn’t pass muster. Consequently March’s payroll jobs fell away to 126,000, less than half of recent reports and insufficient to maintain pace with population growth.
I don’t believe the 126,000 jobs, but let’s take them at face value and again ask: Where are the jobs?
One fifth of them are in retail trade. So with real retail sales declining and retail stores closing, the suffering businesses went out and hired 26,000 new employees last month.
The rest of the jobs are in the usual places: ambulatory health care services, employment services, and waitresses and bartenders.
This is super-economy America.
Clearly there is no basis in anything real for the Dow Jones average.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, How America Was Lost, is now available.
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March payroll jobs report
Posted on April 7, 2015 by Paul Craig Roberts
With the Atlanta Fed’s GDP forecast reduced to 0.2 percent growth in the first quarter, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was unable to come up with another high payroll jobs report. Another orchestration couldn’t pass muster. Consequently March’s payroll jobs fell away to 126,000, less than half of recent reports and insufficient to maintain pace with population growth.
I don’t believe the 126,000 jobs, but let’s take them at face value and again ask: Where are the jobs?
One fifth of them are in retail trade. So with real retail sales declining and retail stores closing, the suffering businesses went out and hired 26,000 new employees last month.
The rest of the jobs are in the usual places: ambulatory health care services, employment services, and waitresses and bartenders.
This is super-economy America.
Clearly there is no basis in anything real for the Dow Jones average.
Copyright © 2015 Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, How America Was Lost, is now available.