The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) released the August Jobs Report [DATA HERE].
The headline news that will be heralded by the White House Press Secretary is a net gain of 315,000 jobs. Unemployment rose to 3.7%.
I wonder how over-inflated that the jobs number is in view of the recent downward revision of the June numbers by 105,000. It never ceases to catch my attention how jobs numbers are almost always overstated when a Democrat is President and understated when a Republican is President. I wonder why that is.
The real story is buried in the details. Sundance has done a quick dive into the data. This has yielded some interesting results.
(1) Unemployment for adult men and unemployment for Latinos increased in August. Adult men and specifically adult Latino men are losing their jobs. (2) The average number of hours worked in August dropped 0.1 hour to 34.5 hours. (3) Total employment amid those aged 16 to 19-years of age increased by 363,000 in August:
Whoa! The 16-19 age range increased by 363,000 while total employment only went up 315,000. One would guess that means that the total number of part time jobs is increasing while full-time employment is cratering. And one would be right.
Mass layoffs have been announced by US corporations. This has resulted in near record layoffs on a par with the layoffs observed during the COVID lockdowns. But the Avatar in the Oval Office says the economy is doing great.
Further investigation reveals that part-time employment surged by 413,000 in August while full-time employment declined by 242,000.
And the Biden administration is trying to sell the idea that we are not really in a recession. They are now calling it a growth recession. Let’s recall that employment numbers always trail what is happening in the economy. Does this look like growth? The full time numbers are trending downward. I guess in an Orwellian world negative growth is redefined as growth.
It is only going to get worse from here as we continue to see a contraction in the amount of goods and services consumed while inflation continues to make living normally more difficult for most Americans.
Inflation, which is at 40 year highs, is causing another remarkable phenomenon. The number of people holding multiple full-time jobs just hit another record high.
It is clear that since the Avatar was inaugurated, there has been a significant upward trend in this phenomenon. This is undoubtedly due to the record inflation in the cost of things that people need to live. And that is much higher than 8.5%
That’s 30+%. When will there be any acknowledgement of this from the White House? Certainly not before the mid-term elections. The Biden administration cannot afford more bad news. The inflation of the CPI in the things that people need to live is now higher than during the Carter administration. Another record for mean old man in the Oval Office.