The analysis below covers the Employment picture released on the first Friday of every month. While most of the attention goes to the headline number, it can be helpful to look at the details, revisions, and other reports to get a better gauge of what is really going on.
According to the latest non-farm payroll report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the US economy added 199,000 new jobs in November and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.7%. This was widely viewed as a “strong” jobs report. According to one mainstream analyst, the November employment data “portrays an economy that is easing toward a soft landing and is not on the brink of a recession.”
Peter Schiff wasn’t as impressed. He called it “just another hyped-up jobs report.”
Every month, we get government job reports that tell us the labor market is booming. Then we get an avalanche of mainstream headlines telling us that this is a sign the economy is just fine.
But these government job numbers simply don’t make sense.
The BLS reported that a whopping 339,000 jobs were added in May. This crushed median estimates of 190,000 jobs added. The Household Survey tells a very different story though, reporting a loss of 310,000 jobs.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 256k jobs were added in April with major revisions down in previous months. Meanwhile, the Household Survey reported only 139k jobs in April, the lowest amount since November last year.
The BLS reported that 236k jobs were added in March. Similar to December and January, the Household survey greatly exceeded the Headline Report with 577k jobs added. The Household Survey was surprisingly strong given the current economic environment.
As discussed last month, it is getting harder to take all the BLS employment data as fact. This month, some of the data is a bit closer in line, but the QECW report seemed to show a big deviation (more below).
You’ve probably heard the saying that history might not repeat, but it often rhymes. If that’s true, looking back at the runup to the 2008 financial crisis and Great Recession should cause concern. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey looks at some of the parallels between then and now. He also digs deeper into the January jobs report and explains why you should be skeptical.
By all measures, the latest job report absolutely blasted past expectations with one of the biggest upside surprises in recent memory. The current month came in at 517,000 jobs created. But even that massive figure was beaten by the latest Household Survey which showed 894k jobs created in January.
Mark Twain once said there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. The government excels in all three. In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap podcast, host Mike Maharrey digs into the recent jobs data. He reveals that the numbers just don’t add up and explains why the labor market might not be as awesome as the mainstream keeps telling you. He also talks about the newest data on central bank gold buying.