In a positive sign that the U.S. labor market might be gradually improving, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today that job layoffs and discharges fell to 1.5 million in April, the lowest level since the BLS started tracking monthly “involuntary separations” in 2001 (see chart below). Compared to the peak of more than 2.5 million in February 2009, April’s job layoff numbers showed an improvement of 1 million, and are now well below the pre-recession average of 1.9 million.
The BLS also reported today that total job openings in April fell slightly from March, but remained close to a post-recession high of 2.97 million, which is an overall increase of 860,000 job openings since the recovery started in July 2009. Manufacturing job openings remained above 200,000 in April for the fourth consecutive month for the first time since 2008, and even the depressed construction sector showed signs of coming back to life with 96,000 jobs openings in April, the highest level for that month since 2007. At some point, the combination of job layoffs falling to record lows and the ongoing increases in job openings will eventually start showing up in a falling unemployment rate.
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Um, no.
Actually, according to the BLS, openings, hires, and separations are flat. It’s the second sentence of your news release. (I used to watch a lot of cartoons in the afternoon when I was younger and they always had this PSA “Reading is Fundamental.”)
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
Look at consumer confidence, the slowdown in manufacturing, an building permits are down.
I’m loathe to believe your sunny outlook in the face of data like these:
http://ht.ly/5dpC3
and the fact that you, um, need to re-read that release.