From the BLS:
Since the start of the recession in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 7.2 million. In September, construction employment declined by 64,000. Monthly job losses averaged 66,000 from May through September, compared with an average of 117,000 per month from November to April. September job cuts were concentrated in the industry's nonresidential components (-39,000) and in heavy construction (-12,000). Since December 2007, employment in construction has fallen by 1.5 million. Employment in manufacturing fell by 51,000 in September. Over the past 3 months, job losses have averaged 53,000 per month, compared with an average monthly loss of 161,000 from October to June. Employment in manufacturing has contracted by 2.1 million since the onset of the recession.
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Now for the look at a subsection of total employment levels (not just the nonfarm payroll numbers):
Let’s raise the minimum wage, quick!
Exactly. And it must be a “living wage” according to Jesse Jackson.
From purposes of Hayekian boom-bust macro, things like cars, houses, and other consumer durable goods are considered capital / production goods, i.e. we should expect both manufacturing jobs and construction jobs to be hard hit.
Q. Job Gains? A. The report states: “Healthcare has added 559,000 jobs since the recession began”
No one is denied healthcare in this country and this being the only area of job gains is another confirmation of that.
Since these sectors employ men more often than women there is clearly some systematic sexism at work here.
I like that first post. What a great indicator of how destructive the minimum wage really is on our economy.
The manufacturing company I work for is doing great actually, but we and our customers are cutting back some just out of caution. Two of our largest customers are all over the place with their forecasts because they’re being overly cautious, then their sales take off nonetheless. That puts us in a bind as we can’t get a good picture of how the next few months are supposed to trend.
Point being that the uncertainty a heavy handed state brings to an economy is often times worse or at least as bad as the remedies they’re trying to concoct. Thus much of the capital expenditure that would be taking place, even in a correcting market, is frozen.
The best policy in these situations is probably a moratorium on new legislation. Faulty laws causing the crisis are already realized by the market, so correcting those laws accomplishes nothing in the immediate future (assuming even that legislative changes are properly called “corrections”). A policy of sit and watch is most prudent, to allow the new productive economy to declare itself.
I think it would be more interesting if the Feds, and commentators, would focus on the gross numbers too. Even in this environment people are being hired in large numbers. But more are being fired, or quit. This will create a question in the public’s mind….”what is it about those industries/firms that enable them to hire?”. That is the answer we want to know.