According to the ADP employment report released Wednesday morning, 254,000 provate-sector jobs were lost in September. This was the least since July 2008. In addition, August's number of jobs lost was revised lower to 277,000 from the originally reported 298,000. The results led Joel Prakken from Macroeconomic Advisers to note that "Employment losses have diminished significantly over the last two quarters," a fact that can't really be argued with. That said, there are still 254,000 Americans who lost their job in September and 277,000 who were left unemployed in August. Yes, there are less people losing jobs, but the monthly numbers will continue to add up until new jobs are created.
Even when the number of people employed starts increasing, the pace of gains will happen slower than the pace of any economic recovery. Is this data a reason to celebrate? Investors certainly seem to contend so as futures pointed higher. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves in celebrating. Please understand, I am not Chicken Little here and the sky isn't falling, but I want to see some job losses in five or four digits rather than six before I get too excited.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-30-2009 @ 12:39PM
r vlach said...
There are millions of dollars in street signs that embellish the wonderful job our tax money is doing to create jobs. These jobs are centered around a new layer of asphalt being applied to mile after mile of road. This is the good side of the story. The bad side is that all these jobs in center US and north will be lost between November and December 1 when the asphalt plants close for the season. Have no fear as all these unemployed workers now qualify for unemployment compensation. So if we add this all up, it not only cost us for the smooth roads but also to pay the workers for a 5~6 month vacation to admire their work.
9-30-2009 @ 3:49PM
Iridium said...
Exactly, I have never seen more road work being done in my entire life. It is like every single highway is being worked on at the same time.
All scrambling to get done before winter sets in. At the end of October all of the work will be halted. The projects that weren't finished will have to start from scratch again next year after the long winter destroys the work that was done.
The worst part about it is that all of these projects are net loses for the economy because they are being paid for by the government. The money must be taken out of the economy first.
While building a new bridge or constructing a new lane on a highway does put people to work, it is only temporary. These jobs also do not produce anything of real value to the economy. They don't produce anything that can be consumed adding money and enabling permanent job creation.