THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JANUARY 2009
Nonfarm payroll employment fell sharply in January (-598,000) and the unem-
ployment rate rose from 7.2 to 7.6 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of
the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment has declined
by 3.6 million since the start of the recession in December 2007; about one-
half of this decline occurred in the past 3 months. In January, job losses
were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.
...a bit worse than what I heard was the expectation for headline unemployment (7.5 percent); the December drop in payrolls (cf.) was revised from 524,000 to 577,000.
Added: The current employment situation release reflects the latest benchmark revisions and associated updates of the net birth/death model. Not too surprisingly, on balance this makes a bad situation look somewhat worse.
|Table B. Revisions in total nonfarm employment, January-December 2008, |
|seasonally adjusted |
| |
|(In thousands) |
|____________________________________________________________________________|
| | | |
| | Levels | Over-the-month changes |
| Year |-----------------------|-------------------------------------|
| and | As | | As | | |
| month | previously | As | previously | As | Difference |
| | published | revised | published | revised | |
|______________|____________|__________|____________|__________|_____________|
| | | | | | |
| 2008 | | | | | |
| | | | | | |
|January ......| 138,002 | 138,080 | -76 | -72 | 4 |
|February .....| 137,919 | 137,936 | -83 | -144 | -61 |
|March ........| 137,831 | 137,814 | -88 | -122 | -34 |
|April ........| 137,764 | 137,654 | -67 | -160 | -93 |
|May ..........| 137,717 | 137,517 | -47 | -137 | -90 |
|June .........| 137,617 | 137,356 | -100 | -161 | -61 |
|July .........| 137,550 | 137,228 | -67 | -128 | -61 |
|August .......| 137,423 | 137,053 | -127 | -175 | -48 |
|September ....| 137,020 | 136,732 | -403 | -321 | 82 |
|October ......| 136,597 | 136,352 | -423 | -380 | 43 |
|November .....| 136,013 | 135,755 | -584 | -597 | -13 |
|December (p)..| 135,489 | 135,178 | -524 | -577 | -53 |
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