I Don’t Think the Jobs Report Was Good

I don’t think the jobs report was good. I don’t think the economy is good.

I just read a series of comments on the story linked above and commenters were euphoric. Why do we see one sunny report after another on jobs, unemployment and the economy while Forbes reports that 40% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and 29% are doing even worse, i.e., their income doesn’t cover their expenses? Why has the sentiment on LinkedIn been so dismal?

The jobs numbers are illusory. The jobs are all part time. Last month’s jobs were all part time. Full-time employment actually went down. We’ve added 6.2 million jobs since May 2022 and full-time employment has gone up by only 263,000. Number of jobs “created” has gone up much faster than number of people employed, I suspect because a single person working multiple jobs counts as multiple jobs.

The unemployment numbers are illusory. If you work 1 hour in a week, you are not unemployed. If you are marginally attached to the labor force, you are not unemployed. If you work part time for economic reasons, you are not unemployed. Look up the U-6 unemployment rate for what I’d say is a more realistic number.