PRESS RELEASE
U.S. Economic Decline More Evident in New Jobs Report
Oct. 2, 2015 (EIRNS)—More evidence that the U.S. economy is heading downward, especially regarding physical economic production and the labor force, came in the Labor Department’s September employment report, released this morning. Goods-producing employment in the economy fell, with manufacturing and mining (oil and gas) employment shrinking by 21,000; hourly and weekly wages fell; the number of work-eligible Americans out of the labor force reportedly rose by a huge 579,000 to 94.6 million; labor force participation dropped and the labor force itself shrank by 250,000.
Even Morgan Stanley was forced to recognize some of the sleight of hand: It noted that the decline in the official unemployment rate from 5.5% in May to 5.1% in August, was "entirely attributable" to a drop in the labor participation rate to 62.4%—a fact long noted by EIR.
Taking into account downward revisions by the Labor Department to the previous two months’ reports, the average job creation claimed by the government for 2015 so far, is below 200,000/month; in 2014, the average was 260,000/month. The past three months are now reported to be 223,000 (July), 136,000 (August), and 142,000 (September); an average of 167,000/month.
Goods-producing employment is down 28,000 over those three months and down for the year so far, with falling manufacturing and mining jobs overcoming slight gains in construction. In the same three months service employment has increased by 450,000, dominated by healthcare, retail trade, and financial services.
Average weekly hours worked, hourly wages, and weekly wages all fell in the September report; weekly average wages are just 2% higher than one year ago.
These developments had been indicated by reports of industrial contraction from seven Federal Reserve district banks around the country in the past two weeks.
The report will end the past ten days’ "round" of speeches by Federal Reserve governors and chair Janet Yellen, reassuring that the Fed is still ready to raise interest rates soon. Treasury bond market rates dropped like a stone in the hours after the Labor Department report appeared, not to mention stock markets. The Fed remains "trapped" in its Wall Street-ordered, economically damaging zero-interest-rate policy, until Wall Street is broken by Glass-Steagall, and the Fed is "replaced" by national credit institutions.
