an tSionna: Jobs Data From Last Friday

Data & commentary regarding last Friday's jobs report from Chart of the day.com.

The latest jobs report came out {last Friday} with the Labor Department reporting that nonfarm payrolls (jobs) increased by 114,000 in addition to the unemployment rate dropping to 7.8% for the month of September. Today's chart provides some insight into the current US job market by comparing the percentage change in total nonfarm payrolls (blue line) since the declared end of the Great Recession to the performance of the private sector job market (gold line) and government sector job market (red line) during the same period. As today's chart illustrates, the overall job market (blue line) continues to trend higher albeit at a pace that has slowed over the past several months. Today's chart also illustrates that the government job market trended significantly lower since the first half of 2009 (with the exception of temporary census hiring in mid-2010). This decline was due to federal, state and local governments attempting to realign their budgets following an unexpected decline in revenues (e.g. property taxes, income taxes, etc.) as a result of the historic plunge in housing prices and nonfarm payrolls. Over the past three months, however, the number of government jobs has been on the rise.

My thoughts:  Data is consistent with an economy that is plodding along but has the potential to pick up a bit of steam sometime in 2013 assuming some governmental compromise regarding the so called "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year.


Link:  Chart of the Day: Jobs Data