NonFarm Payroll: -80,000
The March employment data was much worse than expected: NonFarm Payroll down 80,000, Unemployment Rate 5.1%, all prior revisions worsen than previous releases.
Let me be blunt: There is no way to spin these numbers, though that won't stop the usual syncophants and junkies from trying. Only the 21% who think the country is on the right track will deny the employment situation is weak, and that the odds now favor that we are in a recession.
This was the third month in a row of declining NFP, and the worst payroll number since March 2003. On a year-on-year basis, nonfarm payroll employment slipped to +0.4% percent in March, from +0.6% in February. The Unemployment rate worsened to 5.1%, from 4.8%
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charts courtesy of Barron's Econoday
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For a laugh, go back and read some of the comments on the prior months NFP posts. Some of the inane cheerleading is priceless.
Do not misunderstand me -- I want people to debate, discuss, argue. But that means using facts, being data driven, using links to other resources. We want a robust competition of ideas, not rhetoric; intelligence, not wishful thinking.
If you are merely spouting off some post-fact ideological rant, you are not welcome here. Same too for the ditto-heads repeating what some unaccountable pundit has said. The usual trolls who post garbage under pseudonyms are so embarrassingly clueless, you can only hope that they went broke before they reproduced (a Darwinian form of financial accountability).
In the next redesign, fake email addresses will not be allowed to be used for registration purposes. Real names, real people, real discussions -- Asshats not welcome.
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Previously:
Employment
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/employment/index.html
Source:
Employment Situation Summary
BLS, April 4, 2008
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
Related:
81% in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on the Wrong Track
DAVID LEONHARDT and MARJORIE CONNELLY
NYT, April 4, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/04/us/04poll.html
Friday, April 04, 2008 | 09:49 AM | Permalink
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Comments
Good post and thanks for a bit of historical context. I doubt a lot of folk are going to look at the graph and say: Things are looking up!
Minor nit: 100% - 81% = 19%
Posted by: JP | Apr 4, 2008 10:28:18 AM
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