I’ve written before about the seasonal factors affecting employment and I posted yesterday about the ongoing misinformation in the Georgia Department of Labor’s press releases regarding monthly changes in employment. As I noted yesterday, the most important data doesn’t even…
Tag: Employment
Again: misleading information from the Georgia Department of Labor on unemployment
In my City Talk column coming up on Sunday, I consider the broader challenges facing the housing market, still, and I mention along the way some of the grim statewide employment data that was released today by the Georgia Department…
AASU Economic Monitor shows continued slow growth in the Savannah area
From the SMN today, Local economy still growing, but slowly: “The regional economy is currently being supported by healthy tourism activity, strong ports activity and the improving health of the services sector, including business and professional services and transportation,†[Armstrong…
NYT: More urban density leads to better jobs
There’s a great piece by Ryan Avent in the NYT this weekend: One Path to Better Jobs: More Density in Cities. Early on in the piece, Avent seems to be invoking Jane Jacobs’ concept of “squelchers” — those who oppose…
“U-6” unemployment rate at 16.2%: is that the number we should be reporting?
I’m generally more interested in the level of total employment than in the headline unemployment rate, which is highly dependent on the number of people in the labor force. When Americans give up looking for work, they’re not counted in…
Today’s jobs report — this one really hurts
As regular readers know, I’ve been hitting a lot of the same cautionary notes for several years in my City Talk columns in the Savannah Morning News. I just haven’t been able to see where growth is going to come…
Seasonality in labor markets — and political manipulation of the results
At the end of my Savannah Morning News column today, I talk about the “absurd” characterizations in the Georgia Department of Labor’s press release about employment in the state. Here I’m going to expand on some of those thoughts. As…
Looking at regional disparities in unemployment rates (or: why are things so bad in the South?)
Unemployment data is really slippery, and I’ll post something on Sunday as a follow up to a portion of my SMN column in which I mention some of the political sleight of hand of blaming seasonal factors for numbers that…
Federal government, immigration among key drivers of job growth in Texas
I already posted about some of the less than stellar data regarding job growth in Texas. That’s a subject that has been — and will be — much in the news as long as Rick Perry’s run for the Republican…
Some numbers regarding job growth in Texas
We’re going to be hearing and reading a lot about job growth in Texas under Governor Rick Perry now that he has entered the race for the Republican nomination. The numbers are tricky — and they are not nearly as…
Pimco founder: weak demand a bigger problem than debt
I’ve been writing a lot lately about something that seems pretty obvious to me: weak demand is at the heart of our current economic woes, not the manufactured short-term debt “crisis” or even the very real long-term debt and deficit…
Two slow recoveries in the last decade for U.S. economy
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States added a seasonally adjusted 117,000 jobs in June. That’s a fairly weak number, but it was higher than expectations after some of the weak economic data that was recently released.…
Markets do not like what they see in debt deal, current data, and future policies
The Dow was down 2.19% today, the Nasdaq 2.75%, and the S&P 500 2.56%. Obviously, the markets were not buoyed by the debt deal, signed today by Obama, that averted a default. No, the markets were apparently looking at fresh…
Georgia labor commissioner gives misleading explanation for grim new employment data
I’ve been increasingly frustrated by the spin promoted by the Georgia Department of Labor under new Commissioner Mark Butler. In the spring, he cited weak job growth numbers as a sign of improvement in Georgia’s employment picture, but did not…