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Job Market Hits a Speed Bump

Just when you think the economy is recovering, we get bad news from the government.   The May Jobs Report was nothing to brag about.   While many employers have recovered from the Recession, jobs are still flagging.  Some say many employers have learned to do more with fewer employers.  Or that they are using automation to increase their bottom lines.

As an employment screening group that conducts background checks for employers around the country, we have been seeing a marked increase in employment.  I suppose that doesn’t apply to every region or every industry.

Anyway…here are some excerpts from the May Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  For the complete report, here is their link Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+54,000) in May, and the unemployment

rate was essentially unchanged at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
reported today. Job gains continued in professional and business services, health
care, and mining. Employment levels in other major private-sector industries were
little changed, and local government employment continued to decline.

Household Survey Data

The number of unemployed persons (13.9 million) and the unemployment rate (9.1
percent) were essentially unchanged in May. The labor force, at 153.7 million, was
little changed over the month. (See table A-1.)

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (8.9 percent),
adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (24.2 percent), whites (8.0 percent), blacks
(16.2 percent), and Hispanics (11.9 percent) showed little or no change in May. The
jobless rate for Asians was 7.0 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1,
A-2, and A-3.)

In May, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over)
increased by 361,000 to 6.2 million; their share of unemployment increased to 45.1
percent. (See table A-12.)

The civilian labor force participation rate was 64.2 percent for the fifth
consecutive month. The employment-population ratio remained at 58.4 percent in
May. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred
to as involuntary part-time workers) was essentially unchanged in May at 8.5
million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut
back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.

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