By: Sean Curry
The monthly jobs report by the Labor Department for the month of September revealed that the economy gained nearly 250,000 jobs, reducing the number of those officially considered unemployed by 329,000. However, over 100,000 people quit looking for work thus removing them from the official unemployed statistic. After incredibly poor gains from the previous months of August and July the surge in job gains in September comes as a good sign but is unfortunately trumped by the bigger issues of stagnate wages and decreased labor force participation, which complicated an overall favorable economic outlook.
The new gains have driven the unemployment 0.2 point lower, bringing it to roughly 5.9%; the lowest point it’s been since July 2008. The strong figures add to the sense that the economy has picked up steam this year; the lower unemployment rate, combined with the surge in hiring, could ratchet up pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates earlier than expected.
The job gains were based across the board, including many higher-paying industries while the massive economic industries concerning retail, leisure, and hospitality saw an additional 68,000 jobs, continuing their consistent growth over the last couple of years. Even with the promising statistics, there are reasons to be cautious as questions remain about the quality of jobs.
The Labor Department’s report revealed that in September there were roughly 7.1 million people who were working part-time positions because their hours had been cut back, or because they were unable to find a full-time job, even though they’d prefer full-time work. That figure has nearly doubled from 4.6 million since before the beginning of the recession. The labor force participation rate, a figure that measures the amount of Americans that are working, remained effectively stagnant at the lowest rate since 1978: 62.7%.
On paper, the US economy is doing decently well and recovering at a favorable, albeit less than preferred, rate painting a rosy picture; unfortunately reality proves otherwise. Full-time jobs are extremely sparse while part-time and seasonal jobs are becoming bountiful. Public Officials and the media need to bring more attention to the issue of the quality of the jobs themselves instead of purely the number of jobs. Many more people are employed today than four years ago, but the numbers can be misleading due to many factors such as people having multiple jobs and if they are Part-time, Full-time, or Seasonal. A study conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that 72% of Americans still believe that the US is still in a recession.