The Labor Department has confirmed the ghastly jobs data that the ADP figures and the weekly jobless claims figures were indicating. The unemployment rate came in higher at 9.1% and the change in non-Farm Payrolls came in at a dismal 54,000.
Bloomberg was looking for 8.9% unemployment from a reading of 9.0% before, and the payrolls were expected to grow by almost 170,000 and versus a prior figure of 232,000.
The average hourly earnings did gain by 0.3% from a 0.1% reading the month before and versus a consensus of 0.2%. We again have over 6 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 6 months.
The private sector payrolls actually gre by 83,000 versus a consensus of 180,000 and down from a revised 251,000 the month before. For the austerity bugs, at least the government payrolls came down again in a trend that is only expected to continue.
When the Labor Department is admitting to a higher unemployment rate as the workforce expands again, then there really is trouble. The only good news is that the consensus figures should have been lower than they were based upon the data that was already out this week. We were not even expecting 100,000 jobs and were looking for 9.0% on our own call.
JON C. OGG
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