The Jobs Market Is Starting to Fall Apart
Even if Thursday’s jobs report comes in strong, a look behind the headline number tells a different story

—>
https://www.wsj.com/economy/jobs/jo...6?st=BAsbZ5&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
“The U.S. has been adding jobs at a respectable clip, though the pace has been slowing. Economists expect that the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report on Thursday will show that the economy added 110,000 jobs in June.
This year through May, the U.S. has added an average of 124,000 jobs a month. That is down from last year’s average of 168,000 a month—a reflection in part of how
stop-start tariffs, government layoffs and
an immigration crackdown could be catching up to the job market. More fundamentally, slow population growth and an aging workforce make it harder for the U.S. to add jobs like it did in the past.
… People who have jobs are keeping them, but those who want jobs are having a tough time finding work. That includes recent high-school and
college graduates, people who are back on the job hunt after an absence, and those who have been fired.
… For January through April, the Labor Department has so far revised down the monthly employment gains by an average of 55,000 jobs. March went from a headline of
228,000 jobs added when it was first announced, to 185,000 when
it was first revised, to 120,000 when
it was revised again….
[QCEW = US Government Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages]
… The survey of businesses—what economists call the establishment survey—shows that the U.S. added about 1.7 million jobs over the 12 months ended in May. But comparable numbers from the household survey show a smaller gain of about 1 million jobs.
To be fair, economists usually prefer the establishment survey for counting jobs. That, after all, is what it is designed to do. Still, the household survey is another yellow flag. …”