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The highly anticipated March jobs report out today supported what U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said earlier this week: The job market is not back to normal and the Fed has more to do on the unemployment front.
This morning, the U.S. government announced that the economy barely missed expectations of 200,000 new jobs in March 2014, adding 192,000 jobs. The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 6.7%.
The lukewarm announcement was cheered mainly for its revisions for previous months - revisions from the January and February jobs reports added 37,000 positions.
However, there isn't much reason to cheer, because the economy is still struggling to gain traction.
"The BLS jobs report released this morning shows an economy that has been stuck in second gear for months," Steven Pressman, Professor and Economics and Finance at Monmouth University in Long Branch, NJ, told
STABLE AND SECURE
The Federal Government is very stable. Over the decades, the total number of Federal employees (BLS) has remained about 2.3 million, up or down a few 1,000. It hardly varies, in fact.
Most Federal employees are career employees who have lifetime job tenure ( just like public school teachers) after satisfactorily completing three years of continuous Federal employment. Job security in any economy is very high and there are always a significant number of highly "qualified" employees applying to each published vacancy announcement. This applies to most every title, series (GS), and grade level within the civilian Federal Work force.
"Qualified" in Federal Government parlance is an objective measurement derived at by evaluating every applicant in terms of knowledge (degree), skills, and ability or the KSA's. The "Bible" of the Federal government in determining employee or applicant qualifications is the X-118 Office of Personnel Handbook. Thus, you can always "look it up in the book (manual)"
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE TURNOVER IS ESSENTIALLY ZERO
Job stability counts more than anything else when times are tough. Take my late grandmother, for example. She had a steady job as a public school teacher during the Great Depression and throughout her working life. Retired with a good pension. Not extravagant, but pretty good in a very low inflation environment. Stable America, Stable Income, in fact, the Best of America in my opinion.
Employee turnover in most Government jobs is still less than 5%/per year. In contrast, its 25%-100% per YEAR in the contract security industry and with Armored Car Couriers, as well. Pay and benefits are less and security in the industry (private) non-existent. Your employer can lose a key client contract and you're out-the-door tomorrow. That's the way it is in the service sector for hourly employees, anyway.