August 2011 Net Monthly Job Added in the US: Zero, ゼロ, Cero, Null,

The last time when this happened, according to the news report, was August of 1945, when the World War II finally ended with the surrender of the imperial Japan.



From MSNBC (9/2/2011):

Employment growth ground to a halt in August, as sagging consumer confidence discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from hiring, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the struggling economy.



Nonfarm payrolls were unchanged last month, the Labor Department said Friday. It was the first time since 1945 that the government has reported a net monthly job change of zero. The August payrolls report was the worst since September 2010, while nonfarm employment for June and July was revised to show 58,000 fewer jobs.



(The article continues.)

According to the article, while the number may look bad, it's all because of striking Verizon workers (45,000 people).



President Obama had no comment, and at 10AM departed for his presidential retreat at Camp David for the Labor Day weekend (of all weekends..). (That's all he did today.)

He must be preparing for his big speech on jobs to be delivered on the NFL opening night next week, no doubt.

If that doesn't do anything (I doubt it does), there's Ben and his QE3 to the rescue. (Just don't ask rescue what?)

More about → August 2011 Net Monthly Job Added in the US: Zero, ゼロ, Cero, Null,

What is the Government doing about this – and what are the oppositions ideas?

The Household Labour Force survey is out.

There are now 159,000 officially unemployed in New Zealand. That's not including those whose benefits are suspended.

There are now 43,000 more people out of work than there were in November 2008.

Nearly 100,000 people are unemployed but are not receiving a benefit.

21% of those on benefits are caring for children under 6.

30.6% of recipients are aged 18 – 24 years.

34% of beneficiaries are Maori.

Maori unemployment is at 16.4% ( up from 15.4 % in February) and Pacific unemployment is at 14.1%, both big increases from 12.6% and 12.8% respectively a year ago.

At the end of June this year, 333,000 working age people were on main social security benefits - an increase of 75,000.

45,000 of them are teenagers.

19,000 people lost their jobs in the past three months.

In the last three months 7000 people have given up looking for work and have dropped out of the labour force.

The number of those on benefits has increased 29% in the 2 years ending June. That's one in three extra beneficiaries.

That's not including the "hidden unemployed" -the students, those whose partners work, those who work part time but want to work full time.

And the chances that you are one of the above is the highest since 1999.

What’s worse, there are now 255,700 jobless (either unemployed, not ‘actively’ seeking work, or not able to start work immediately).

More about →

Treasury can't forecast unemployment

In December Treasury said unemployment would peak at a 7%. John Key said that Treasury was being too pessimistic. Figures released shows that unemployment is now 7.3%. The last time it was that high National was in Government, too. But there is one major difference: the 10 years Labour spent getting people off the unemployment benefit ( and off ACC) to sickness and invalids benefits:
[h/t Lindsay Mitchell]

I don't think unemployment has peaked yet - and the Government is silent on what to do about rising unemployment except blaming it on population growth - but 25.5 percent of all job seekers have been out of work for more than 6 months.Anyone know how many jobs the job summit created?

Employment is going to be a key issue at the next election. The question voters will be asking is: Can Labour do any better? I think it can.

More about →

Not exactly a luxurious life

I wouldn’t get too concerned that the government is planning to stick 7000 unemployed people into McDonalds. The scheme is over a five years period, equating to 26 per week on average. That is if the 7000 figure is reached. What if they only get 4000 into McDonalds – that’s about 15 per week.

And that is about how many people are being employed at McDonalds every week anyway, due to the high staff turnover. But this deal is not driven by a desire to get people work. It is driven by a desire not to pay so much money on benefits, as John Key explains:

When we spend a lot on benefits it means there are a lot of New Zealanders not really earning a lot. Life on a benefit is not exactly a luxurious life.

When lots of people work at McDonalds, it means there are a lot of New Zealanders not really earning a lot. Working at McDonalds is not exactly a luxurious life.

What if they were to offer a McDonalds fulltime position - 30 hours a week in WINZ language - to a main unemployed breadwinner with children? If they were to get $15.00 an hour, they`d get $450 a week ($23,400 a year), compared with a benefit payment of $18,850 a year before tax. That's an extra $87.50 a week.

Beneficiaries can earn $80.00 each week and retain the benefit. Effectively squared up. But the person in this example will be spending money on transport to get to work so he is worse off by working at McDonalds.

Would you do it?

More about →

One in five unemployed are on a training benefit

I have been saying for a while that much of the reason the unemployment benefit numbers are low is because of the amount of people on training benefits. Those on training benefits are excluded from official dole figures. Training benefits last from six weeks to more than a year, depending on the type of training.

About one on five of those who would normally be on the unemployment benefit are on a unemployed training benefit (UBT ), thus significantly skewing the dole figures to a greater extent than those who are transferred from the dole to sickness and invalids benefits.

For example, at the end of June, 23000 were in receipt of an unemployment benefit and 6368 were in receipt of a training benefit. Some are transferred from other benefits like sickness, but these are few. Ths is because training benefits require you to be in training for 30 hours a week and if you can't work 30 hours a week because of depression or whatever, you shouldn't be able to cope with training for that period either - but some slip through.

And what happens after they finished training? What proportion enter sustainable employment? Well, the MSD staff won't say, because they don't know. However they do know that many go on to other training options or onto the sickness or unemployment benefit again. Some get part time jobs and have their benefit abated. But the MSD has no idea how many people get jobs or go to further training such as university as a result of training they put their "clients" though.

It is important to note that these figures do not include those under 18 who would normally be on the independant youth benefit. And given that half all on the unemployment benefit are over 40, and the vast majority of those on training benefits are under 40, this could mean that of all those under 40 who are eligible for the unemployment benefit and are receiving income from Work and Income, up to a quarter could be on training benefits or the reason half of all unemployment beneficaries are over 40 is because fewer of those over 40 are trained because they are tougher to train.

More about →