unemployment rate
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Today's May Jobs Report: When Bad News is Good News
When bad news is good news for stock markets you know just how convoluted the current economic environment is.
According to the May jobs report out today (Friday), the U.S. unemployment rate ticked up to 7.6% in May from 7.5% in April, the first increase since the start of 2013. And, markets rallied on the news. The Dow Jones soared more than 200 points by mid-day.
Some will say the May jobs report was good news - thousands of out-of-work people returned to the work force, and the 175,000 jobs added beat expectations.
The reality is we're just treading water. And the labor force participation rate is still at 30-year lows.
But the real good news is the jobs report means more U.S. Federal Reserve support, which will fuel markets already hitting record highs.
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April Employment Report Begins to Show the Signs of the "Obamacare Effect"
Economists breathed a sigh of relief when the Labor Department reported a better than expected April employment report on Friday, but the details show cracks still remain.
Many of the job gains proved to be in lower paying fields and the average number of hours worked dipped.
In fact, April's report revealed the average workweek for private sector employees declined 0.2 hour to 34.4 hours.
The data also suggests The Affordable Health Care Act, aka Obamacare, is already having an impact on hiring since job growth has slowed most significantly among businesses with 50-499 employees.
This could be the reason why...
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Unemployment Down, But February Jobs Report Not All Rosy
Friday's jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is a mixed bag.
The report had some positive news, as the unemployment rate fell to 7.7%, the lowest rate since December 2008.
While the preliminary numbers for February show that 236,000 new jobs were created, exceeding analyst estimates by a wide margin, the figure for January was revised down from 157,000 to 119,000. However, the December number was revised up from 196,000 to 219,000. So for the three months of December 2012-February 2013, the economy has added a total of 574,000 jobs, well above expectations.
But despite the increase in the number of jobs, the main reason for the decline in the unemployment rate is that fewer people are participating in the labor market.
The participation rate fell by 0.1 percentage points to 63.5% in February as 130,000 people dropped out of the labor force. The employment-population ratio remained flat at 58.6%.
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January 2013 Jobs Report: 4 Reasons Unemployment Will Stay High
The U.S. Labor Department released the January 2013 jobs report Friday, showing the unemployment rate inched upward from 7.8% to 7.9%.
Employers added 157,000 jobs in January, short estimates of 168,000, which would have kept the unemployment rate stable.
The jobs report included some good news: Revisions to last year's data, customary in January, show the U.S. added 335,000 more jobs than initially reported in 2012, bringing the monthly average for jobs gained to 181,000 from the 153,000 initially reported.
Employment gains for November and December were revised higher by a total of 127,000.
Contributing most to January payroll increases were the retail, construction and healthcare sectors. The government continued to shed workers, a trend that began four years ago.
But the employment outlook remains bleak. Joblessness has proved persistent, with the unemployment rate stuck above an unhealthy 7% for more than four years.
"The good news is that January's employment gains, coupled with large revisions to the prior months, may translate into more consumer spending power. The bad news is that unemployment remains stubbornly high," said Kathy Bostjanic, director of macroeconomics analysis at the Conference Board.
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U.S. Companies Spending Record-High Cash Piles On Everything But Jobs
U.S. companies have started to spend their record high piles of cash, but most won't be using it to boost hiring.
Since the credit crisis, U.S. companies have collected about $940 billion in cash. Per-share profit surged 36% in 2010, the biggest jump since 1988, and companies cut capital expenditures 26% in 2009 to compensate for the ailing economy.
Some of the biggest cash hoarders as of the end of 2010 include Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) with $40.2 billion cash, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) with nearly $40 billion and Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) with nearly $35 billion.
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Investors Share Biggest Global and U.S. Economic Concerns
Earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns in Japan, uprisings in the Middle East, scary job prospects, a gargantuan federal deficit, zooming gasoline prices, and soaring food prices ... the list of economic challenges facing the world is long and just seems to get longer.
It's tough to remember the last time U.S. consumers and investors faced so much uncertainty. But the worst thing is that there's no clear end in sight.
No wonder consumer confidence remains shaky, at best.
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What Are Your Five Biggest Worries?
Earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns in Japan, uprisings in the Middle East, scary job prospects, a gargantuan federal deficit, zooming gasoline prices, and soaring food prices ... the list of economic challenges facing the world is long and just seems to get longer.
It's tough to remember the last time U.S. consumers and investors faced so much uncertainty. But the worst thing is that there's no clear end in sight.
No wonder consumer confidence remains shaky, at best.
