Understand just how crushing the June employment report is to any notion of recovery. Expectations were for a nationwide uptick of 105,000 jobs for the month. Some analysts even ranged as high as 150K or 175K new jobs.
The reality? Just 18,000 jobs for the month. Nationally. The unemployment rate actually ticked up by .1 percent — totally unexpected.
Worse, the ranks of discouraged workers continue to grow. “The jobless rate rose even as the participation rate declined to 64.1 percent, the lowest since March 1984,” Bloomberg noted. So contrary to every supposed expert, workers are not yet re-joining the workforce. This means that the actual jobless rate — active job seekers and those on the sidelines — is more like 16 percent nationally.
And that means it could as high as 20 percent in Mecklenburg County. Wrap your head around that for a second. June numbers for the state and the county will almost certainly show no job growth — probably none until Q4. Ten percent unemployment has become the new norm for Charlotte USA.
More from Bloomberg:
The household survey showed a 445,000 decrease in employment and a 173,000 increase in unemployment.
Private hiring, which excludes government agencies, rose 57,000 last month after a 73,000 gain. It was projected to rise by 132,000, the survey showed.
Catch that? Private hiring was less than half what was expected. The private sector remains weak and listless while the public sector — thanks to things like a $70m. property tax hike to fund government jobs and raises and $25m. federal handouts to jumpstart streetcars to nowhere — keeps chugging along.
Something has to give, folks. And I’m afraid the Power That Be have already decided it will be you and me.
Bonus Query: Which inter-city riot this summer will be the first to be blamed on chronic unemployment?
