Nonfarm Employment Up 162,000
[Guest post by DRJ]
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports nonfarm employment increased 162,000 in March:
“Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in March, and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Temporary help services and health care continued to add jobs over the month. Employment in federal government also rose, reflecting the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010. Employment continued to decline in financial activities and in information.”
Most of the 162,000 were government and temporary workers:
48,000 were temporary government Census workers;
40,000 were employed in other temporary help services;
27,000 were long-term care and nursing health care workers;
17,000 in manufacturing and 8,000 in mining.
I’m glad some people are able to find jobs but these aren’t good numbers unless most Americans want careers as nurses, care providers, and temporary workers. As for those Census jobs, Hot Air notes that hundreds of Virginia Census workers were laid off April 1st. As I recall, the BLS counts one day’s employment as “employed” during a reporting period. Mission accomplished.
But this is the really bad news:
“The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.”
These people are among the ones who are hurting the most, and their numbers are rising dramatically.
— DRJ
MORE BAD NEWS: Some of the increase is simply an adjustment adding back in the job decreases from the February snows on the East Coast.
And I get to add my name to the unemployment role come May 21. After 25 years with the same company this is the change Obama brought me. Stinkin’ socialist!
PatriotRider (483886) — 4/2/2010 @ 1:03 pmNot to hijack a thread that hasn’t even started, but, does anyone have any idea why I keep getting a warning notice that “Windows Explorer has stopped working”? (W-7/IE-8 system)
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 1:30 pmIt always announces that it is restarting, but this is happening about every 15-min and just started today. Plus, MS Security says there are no problems.
that’s a feature, not a bug, so you’ll quit surfing the net and start being productive. 😀
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/2/2010 @ 1:36 pmgot my 2nd senseless form today, and if we don’t fill it out, they’re gonna send someone.
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/2/2010 @ 1:38 pmi’m sitting on it, so i can see who they hired to w*rk this area, and see the look on their face when i ask them how many points they got on the test.
AD, you either have a corrupted system file (run system file checker (type “SFC /scannow” into the command prompt (hit window key + R and type CMD to get to the command prompt))
or you have some kind of malware or virus or trojan or whatever you want to call that kind of crap.
I would run Windows Defender or spybot if sfc does not show any problems.
And I would use Chrome, Firefox, or Opera browsers, because they do not rely on Windows Explorer and thus are not as system critical if something breaks. You can use IE-Tab with Firefox for IE requiring sites.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:08 pmWell, seeing as how I was laid off from my full-time job 23 months ago, this is being productive.
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:09 pmavast is also popularly recommended and free. I don’t ever run into problems with Windows anymore, so I don’t use that stuff very often.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:10 pmThis is a good point. A lot of people are unaware of just how unemployment figures are calculated. When I was stationed in Japan, my landlord’s son was the managing editor of a business magazine aimed at the expat community.
I met quite a lot of people, including some contributors, who said that unemployment rates between countries can not be compared. For instance, in Japan if you work one hour a week you are considered employed. So if you babysit your sister’s kids, you’re employed. They pointed out that if Japan calculated unemployment the same way the US did, that famously low unemployment rate would be a lot higher.
These figures are vulnerable to a lot of manipulation. Most such government figures are. The sausage-making the bureaucracies engage in is no prettier than the legislative process.
Steve (7d8b00) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:17 pmDustin…I don’t know what happened, but I can’t get in now, since the damn thing says it lost my user profile, so I can’t log on, and I have no idea how to bypass that. I’m on my secondary unit now.
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:53 pmwhen the unemployment rate drops that will mean the little president man’s redistribution is beginning in earnest
happyfeet (71f55e) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:57 pmAD,
1. Run REGEDIT
2. Navigate to “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList”
3. You should find your profile key, with another named identically except for a “.bak” extension
4. Delete the “normally named” key
5. Rename the “.bak” named key to remove the “.bak” extension
6. Restart your machine
OHHHHH, you need an admin profile to do this. Alternatively, shove some money into the DVD drive. It won’t work at first, because you need to shove more money in. Which won’t work because you need to shove more money in. Borrow some money, and then shove that in, too. And then borrow some more to cover the interest on your loan.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/2/2010 @ 2:59 pmI should add, AD, that if this happened to me, I would suspect I have a screwed up hard drive or file system. But I never get malware because of my browsing habits, so I only deal with physical problems in my hardware.
dustin (b54cdc) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:02 pmDustin, the only places I go are PP, Instapundit, Powerline, PJM, and reputable, commercial sites, no porno, plus I have McAfee’s Max Spyware detector, and in fact ran it for a full scan, including virus, this AM. I don’t know how I can do as you suggest…1. Run REGEDIT…I can’t get beyond log on, which in Seven, is a green screen with a little frog over my name that when I click on it, it tells me that the user profile doesn’t exist.
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:21 pmI think I’m screwed.
Soon everyone who voted for o will be unemployed and having regrets. In the meantime, it is only the racists who don’t like him.
Jim (582155) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:22 pmI guess this means that we should go to school to be a nurse taking care of temporary census workers. Or maybe a census worker counting the temporary nurses.
Whatever! There is no way a long-term recovery is built on this foundation. Next quarter will see a jump in IRS employees. Woo-Hoo!!!!
MU789 (d20b17) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:35 pmBig Zero was
mincingcrowing about job “gains” that were so small they didn’t effect the percentage… the usual preening before his hand-picked audience of Obamatrons.While the housing industry continues in a death spiral, the number of long-term unemployed and commercial bankruptcies are at all-time highs, the man preens.
GeneralMalaise (556297) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:51 pmGeneralMalaise – Today’s jobs report certainly has the Dems donning their rally caps for November! Solid. Like a rock.
daleyrocks (718861) — 4/2/2010 @ 3:55 pmGood news…I was able to get in thru the BIOS menu and do a system restore…and everything seems to be working.
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 4:11 pmThanks, Dustin.
I added 4 jobs this month that probably found their way to the construction report, but that sector is so far in the crapper it’ll take years…
(Where’d all those “shovel ready” projects go?)
Not sure if those new jobs will last for more than the summer.
One of those jobs already had an attrition problem and the number went down to 3 as of today.
The outlook for high end construction remains unclear from my view… now is the best time to get a good deal but if someone like George Soros shows up waving cash, I promise to go in low and then beat him like a rented mule on the changes
Does anyone know how many private sector jobs it takes to carry one public sector one?
Steve G (7d4c78) — 4/2/2010 @ 4:57 pmnone, evidently….. 😀
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 4/2/2010 @ 5:52 pmPublic sector jobs confirm that part of Newton’s Law that states that a body at rest tends to stay at rest.
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 6:07 pmDoes anyone know how many private sector jobs it takes to carry one public sector one?
I think I saw something earlier this year that the average government employee was making around $74,000 and the average income for everyone was around $45,000. I’m not sure if the 74G includes benefits or if is just federal employees.
If the net after tax income for a government employee is $60,000 and the average taxes on 45G is $8,000, it takes in the neighborhood of 7.5 private sector employees to support one public sector employee.
At least that’s a quick back of envelope calculation. If anyone has more solid numbers on average income I’d be interested to use them and see what the number would be.
MU789 (d20b17) — 4/2/2010 @ 6:33 pmLet’s pause to give thanks for the thoughtfulness and firm resolve of senators Tom Coburn and Jim Bunning who have helped ensure that those jobless mooches don’t get addicted to the public teat. If they keep collecting unemployment money they won’t even look for jobs.
Larry Reilly (fadcab) — 4/2/2010 @ 7:06 pmAnd this is Easter weekend. There might be jobs out in the grass or bushes somewhere. They should be looking — probably in Oklahoma and Kentucky.
It wouldn’t be Friday night without a drunken drive-by from Larry!
daleyrocks (718861) — 4/2/2010 @ 7:26 pmNot to be gross or anything, but that “public teat” that you seem so willing to give everyone? Well, it’s mine.
And I’m not that kind of girl.
So, I’ll thank Coburn for keeping you from fiddling with my bra strap.
Ag80 (f67beb) — 4/2/2010 @ 7:49 pmI’ve been on a self enforced hiatus from drunken ramblings… here anyway…
MU789: Thanks for giving it a go.
Steve G (7d4c78) — 4/2/2010 @ 7:50 pmWe need public employees to help society run (Big thanks to the host… I am all in on funding people like DDA Frey).
Government needs to assist private sector productivity toward heights that fully fund the support staff… and let us keep a cookie or two for the effort we put into it.
I’m out of cookies… and I don’t dare to mention my favorite cookie is the oreo.
Found this at the American Thinker:
It seems to be accepted knowledge, especially among Democrats, that a government stimulus produces jobs and “fixes” a recession. Yet there is plenty of evidence that shows that fiscal policy in general, much less a stimulus in particular, does nothing of the kind.
I would like to cite two academic economic papers written in 1992 and 1994 (bear with me on this). The papers are titled “What Ended the Great Depression?” and “What Ends Recessions?” The author concluded that
In other words, fiscal policy, or spending, had almost nothing to do with ending the Great Depression or other recessions, try as the government might.
Now here is the kicker: the author of those papers was none other than Christina Romer, who is now President Obama’s Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the economist who concluded that stimuli do not help end recessions was Obama’s chief champion for a $787 billion “stimulus.” (Aren’t you glad that liberals don’t “sell out”?)
Gerald A (a66d02) — 4/2/2010 @ 8:20 pmAnd, in years past she wrote that the multiplier effect of stimulus spending was on the order 0.8; yet in Feb of ’09, she tried to say with a straight face that it was more like 1.5+!
AD - RtR/OS! (8b509d) — 4/2/2010 @ 8:28 pmPlus, let us never let her forget her words on what unemployment would be with, and without, the stimulus package.
And, in years past she wrote that the multiplier effect of stimulus spending was on the order 0.8; yet in Feb of ‘09, she tried to say with a straight face that it was more like 1.5+!
That reminds me of every time a city wants to build a new stadium, they claim that it will bring in twice the dollars it takes to build it.
Of course, if that were true why not build two or three or as many as we need to produce unlimited riches.
MU789 (d20b17) — 4/2/2010 @ 8:52 pmAll the jobs in long-term health care and nursing: sounds like nursing assistants at an old age home, and those are really CRAPPY jobs.
T. Bull (c200dd) — 4/2/2010 @ 9:33 pmGerald A – the US was brought out of the Great Depression by the Second World War – the UK needed to buy all sorts of stuff from the US to keep the UK out of German control – and then the US had to produce all sorts of goods for its own war efforts …
Absent WW II, the way the US GDP was going, the US might still have been in a Depression by now …
When folk try to tell you it was all FDR’s Presidency that brought the US out of the Great Depression, that’s not what the GDP and Unemployment records show …
Alasdair (205079) — 4/3/2010 @ 3:48 am