Topic: Economics
51,000 Jobs Lost in July - a Different Perspective The loss of 51,000 seasonally adjusted jobs in July has been spun as “not so bad” considering the condition of the economy. A deeper look reveals a different story.by Chuck Angier
(libertarian)
Sunday, August 3, 2008
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, on Friday August 1st, reported the loss of 51,000 seasonally adjusted jobs in July. It has been spun as "not so bad" considering the condition of the economy. A deeper look reveals a different story.
Sadly, government is our 2nd largest employer with 22,521,000 employees, but only because trade, transportation and utilities (with 26,397,000 employees) are grouped together so that at least one sector has more employees than government. Education and health services follows with 18,914,000 then professional and business services with 17,919,000. Manufacturing comes in a distant 6th with 13,501,000, virtually unchanged since the layoffs after World War II.
In the 12 months ended in July 2008, we lost 342,000 private sectorjobs while gaining 326,000 governmentjobs, with local and state government accounting for 247,000 and 67,000 jobs respectively. Trading private sector jobs for government jobs is not progress.
In the same time period, we lost 742,000 goods-producing jobs in exchange for 726,000 servicejobs. Manufacturing jobs declined by 348,000 to 13,501,000 again, virtually unchanged since post World War II.
The biggest gainer in the last 12 months was education and health services with a gain of 515,000 jobs. This can be expected when the government provides half the funding for health care and the lions share of funding for public education. Government is the 2nd biggest gainer with 326,000, then leisure and hospitality with 210,000, followed by natural resources and miningwith 41,000 and finally other serviceswith 15,000.
These numbers are not flukes, but rather a continuation of long term trends (more info here).
A vibrant and prosperous economy is based upon building stuff and making things. One friend put it simply, "We can't prosper washing each others clothes!"
Angier is self-employed in agri-business and can be contacted at chuckangier@gmail.com
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Chuck Angier only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Chuck Angier is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
In my town, we lost several hundred jobs in manufacturing. Pallets and clothing patterns could be used domestically or internationally. I have no data if those companies closed their plants due to competition or sabotage or something else. It's just sad when I hear that a group of my neighbors lost their jobs and that they can't find better ones. I landed on my feet when I lost my job in June. Not so for the guy losing his house down the street. Something is going on.
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