CNN is reporting "Hiring picked up as 2026 kicked into gear, with the US economy adding a stronger-than-expected 130,000 jobs last month"
If you haven't been following this stuff for long, it might surprise you to know that "adding" 130,000 jobs in a month is a net loss. A jobs report like this would have been taken as a sign of a very poor economy even 15 years ago. The reason is that around 180,000 young people reach legal employment age each month in the US (Contra the admin's confabulations, this is how many US citizens reach employment age, and is not about immigration slowing). Adding 180,000 jobs would be treading water. Adding 130,000 is effectively 50,000 new people without jobs, a net loss by the spirit of this metric. There's also the reality that many of these estimates have been revised down by the BLS after more data came in.
Saying hiring is "picking up" and is "stronger than expected" is effectively saying "it could have been worse! 🤷 ". It's wild to see this positive spin on a very poor report.
It's extraordinarily fishy that the reported unemployment rate is not moving much in spite of these persistent and mounting job losses. I know why this is so please don't @ me a splanation. My point is that it, again, does not reflect the spirit of what this metric is meant to capture. It is wholly perverse now and should not be reported at all, let alone taken as a meaningful indicator.
The US economic numbers, when you push aside all the B.S., are recession-level. There's no "momentum" in the "labor market". There are not "green shoots" or "signs". The economic situation is bad.
#US #USEconomy #jobs #JobsReport #BLS
If you haven't been following this stuff for long, it might surprise you to know that "adding" 130,000 jobs in a month is a net loss. A jobs report like this would have been taken as a sign of a very poor economy even 15 years ago. The reason is that around 180,000 young people reach legal employment age each month in the US (Contra the admin's confabulations, this is how many US citizens reach employment age, and is not about immigration slowing). Adding 180,000 jobs would be treading water. Adding 130,000 is effectively 50,000 new people without jobs, a net loss by the spirit of this metric. There's also the reality that many of these estimates have been revised down by the BLS after more data came in.
Saying hiring is "picking up" and is "stronger than expected" is effectively saying "it could have been worse! 🤷 ". It's wild to see this positive spin on a very poor report.
It's extraordinarily fishy that the reported unemployment rate is not moving much in spite of these persistent and mounting job losses. I know why this is so please don't @ me a splanation. My point is that it, again, does not reflect the spirit of what this metric is meant to capture. It is wholly perverse now and should not be reported at all, let alone taken as a meaningful indicator.
The US economic numbers, when you push aside all the B.S., are recession-level. There's no "momentum" in the "labor market". There are not "green shoots" or "signs". The economic situation is bad.
#US #USEconomy #jobs #JobsReport #BLS