S&P 500
7,226.20
+0.01%
Dow Jones
49,494.60
-0.62%
Nasdaq 100
27,685.40
+0.66%
Russell 2000
2,804.78
-0.02%
FTSE 100
10,364.50
0.00%
Nikkei 225
59,260.50
-0.78%

Jobs

Double-Digit Unemployment… Just How Lagging Is It?

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

jobless-line-pic2The Labor Department has just reported the unemployment rate and non-farm payrolls data for October.  It isn’t pretty.  The unemployment rate screamed up into the double-digit territory to 10.2%.  The non-Farm Payrolls shrank by a reading of -190,000 versus estimates of -175,000 as the consensus figure.

There was a gain of 0.3% in Average Hourly Earnings.  The losses in jobs were in most sectors in construction, manufacturing, retail, leisure, and hospitality.  There were small gains seen in education and healthcare, but there was actually a small gain in professional services jobs.

We noted earlier this week that it seemed like the Obama administration was telegraphing a weaker bias on jobs.  Turns out that was the case.  And then some. It would be interesting to ask the newly unemployed and those who have been perpetually unemployed with no jobs prospects just how lagging of an economic indicator a 10%+ official unemployment rate is…. let alone the nearly 17.5% total if you include the temporary and underemployed.
JON C. OGG

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

US Adds More Jobs, Markets Unconvinced (ADP)

Private employers added 187,000 jobs in January, according to the latest report on private-sector employment from Automatic Data Processing Inc.…
Jon C. Ogg |

Unemployment Gains Aided by Private Sector

The US Labor Department has just released the March unemployment data and the figures around the change in non-Farm Payrolls. …
Jon C. Ogg |

9.6% August Unemployment, When Bad Feels Good

The official unemployment rate for August is out from the Labor Department and the unemployment rate grew 0.1% to 9.6%…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Reading Jobs Data With Disbelief

The unemployment rates and jobs data almost does not add up on the surface. Some of this may boil down…
Strong Unemployment, Payrolls and Wages Creates Perfect Storm for Markets and the Federal Reserve
Jon C. Ogg |

Strong Unemployment, Payrolls and Wages Creates Perfect Storm for Markets and the Federal Reserve

  Friday’s unemployment and payrolls report from the U.S. Department of Labor was strong, perhaps strong enough that it still…
Douglas A. McIntyre |

Double-Digit Unemployment, Now ‘When’ Rather Than ‘If’

Unemployment is said to be a lagging indicator.  Even if we had not been calling for higher rates than this…
Jon C. Ogg |

Finally, Some Good News in Unemployment

The Labor Department has released its figures for unemployment and for non-Farm Payrolls for the month of March.  The official…
Jon C. Ogg |

Reality Check on Unemployment & Jobs Creation, Ugliness

The Labor Department is out with the newest round of its unemployment and non-Farm payrolls data.  Unlike expectations, it is…
Jon C. Ogg |

Early Reports Set Low Expectations for Friday’s Employment Numbers

ThinkstockIt looks like the market is going to have to brace for yet another lackluster payrolls and unemployment report on…

Top Gaining Stocks

Cboe Global Markets
CBOE • Vol: 1,568,143
New Pluto Global
PSKY • Vol: 12,285,993
Seagate Technology
STX • Vol: 7,378,346
Oracle
ORCL • Vol: 26,317,675
Datadog
DDOG • Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ • Vol: 4,367,433
Clorox
CLX • Vol: 13,260,523
Stryker
SYK • Vol: 4,519,455
Mohawk Industries
MHK • Vol: 1,859,865
Amgen
AMGN • Vol: 3,818,618