Forgive me, but I come bearing more bad news about the U.S. job market
So it looks as though things just got worse. Following a loss of 63,000 positions in February, the U.S. sliced another 80,000 positions off its total number of jobs in March. Oh, and the payroll numbers from January and February (which, as you can tell from above, were pretty pathetic to begin with), have both been revised to reflect bigger losses. In effect, the country has dropped over 230,000 jobs since the start of 2008.
The largest losses came in the manufacturing, construction, and professional and business services sectors. The industries lost 48,000, 51,000, and 35,000 positions, respectively. Specialty trade contractors, motor vehicles and parts, and employment services were the sectors that underwent the most dramatic declines within these industries.
The only sectors landing in the plus-side column in March worth mentioning are health care and food services. Both industries added 23,000 jobs over the course of the month. I know I mentioned this in my last post, but the average earnings for U.S. workers increased by another five cents in March, placing the nation’s average weekly salary at $603.67.
I guess for now, fewer people are making more money. I’d take the time to dissect March’s numbers a bit further, but I doubt that it would yield any better news. Until next month, I’ll be waiting for the day when I can post an overview of the BLS employment situation report that’s a little more upbeat. I swear there were Fridays when that used to happen…
May 5th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
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