15-Second Take: The Employment Picture
WASHINGTON (
) -- With the markets poised to move on the data, here's an easy-to-digest overview of the employment picture.
The Big Numbers:
9.7% unemployment rate in August (highest since June 1983). Nonfarm payroll cuts of 216,000 (the lowest in a year).
For July, the unemployment rate was pinned at 9.4%, while job cuts during the month were revised up today from 247,000 to 276,000.
The Expectations:
According to
Reuters
,
economists expected job losses at 225,000 with an unemployment rate at 9.5%.
In Other Unemployment News:
Just yesterday,
jobless claims for first timers fell by 4,000 to 570,000 last week (many expected a steeper drop), while the four-week moving average jumped. The day before,
ADP
(ADP) - Get Report
said
298,000 private-sector jobs were lost in August.
The layoff bug hit more than a few companies in August:
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
,
Lockheed Martin
(LMT) - Get Report
,
Altera
(ALTR) - Get Report
and
Whirlpool
(WHR) - Get Report
.
The Takeaway:
It's a glass half full, glass half empty kind of report. On the one hand, the 9.7% figure will be the headliner since it is pretty jarring to see in the flesh. Just saying "9.7 percent" might leave many punch-drunk.
Still, many private and public sector economists have said for months that the unemployment rate will hit 10% by the end of the year. And the cuts seemed to have slowed slightly during the month.
But most agree that it may get worse before it gets better and these numbers back that up. The dreadfully named "marginally attached" metric -- or the number of workers who could work, but were so beaten down that they stopped looking for a job recently and who don't count in regular employment figures -- continued to climb compared to last year. The number of total underemployed is setting records, too.
In other words, ask any one on Main Street and they'll tell you the same: you can't stick a fork in this recession until job news improves.
-- Written by Sung Moss in New York
Follow TheStreet.com on
and become a fan on
Copyright 2009 TheStreet.com Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
