April Unemployment & Employment Stats: “less disastrous than before”
May 8, 2009 by
MHI
Filed under
Economic Crisis, U.S. News
By Andrew Kliman, Author of Reclaiming Marx’s “Capital“: A refutation of the myth of inconsistency.
Is the worst over?
A couple of hours ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of nonfarm payroll jobs fell in April by an estimated 539 thousand, and that the unemployment rate increased to an estimated 8.9%, from 8.5% in March. So since employment peaked (and the recession officially began) in December 2007, payroll employment has fallen by 5.7 million. Keeping in mind that the U.S. economy would need to have about 150 thousand additional jobs per month in order for employment to keep up with the growing population, or 150 thousand x 16 months = 2.4 million since December 2007, that makes for a shortfall of over 8 million jobs since the peak. Read More
