Talking Points for the month
- 157,000 (+2,000 from December) non-farm jobs added in January. But unemployment rate up to 7.9%!
- 22.7 million ( Same as December)= 12.3 (+100,000 from December) mil. Unemployed + 8 (+100,000 from December) mil. Involuntarily working part-time + 2.4 (-200,000 from December) mil. who are not even counted = 22.7 million workers who are either unemployed or underemployed or 16% of all workers! = 1 in 6 workers still unemployed or underemployed in the January BLS figures!
- BLS said that the National Unemployment rate stayed the same at 7.9% (revised upward from December) in January. This was the 5th straight month below 8% after 43 straight months of 8% or above!
- Illinois unemployment rate was 8.7% (same as November) in December (Projected).
- The gains were across the board: a) Health Care continues to add jobs and rose by 45,000 in January (- 22,000 from December, but over the year has added 320,000) b) Retail added 33,000 c) Construction rose by 28,000 in January (since a low in January, 2011 has grown by 296,000 jobs) d) Wholesale added 15,000 jobs in January (since a low in May, 2010 has added 291,000 jobs) and e) Mining added 6,000 jobs in January (has risen 23,000 over the last 3 months).
- Transportation and warehousing dropped 14,000 jobs in January and manufacturing stayed the same!
- How bad is it? With only 157,000 jobs created in January, it will take over 10 years to make up for the 7.9 million jobs killed off by the recession. Many of them are not coming back!
