Two important articles about the ongoing dishonest portrayal of the nation’s unemployment crisis:
The Obamacare Jobless Rate Soars from 13.8 percent to 14.3 percent
The market got more bad news that’s good news- but not good in the sense that it actually helps you, me or anyone else- when the new jobs reports came out on Friday.
This “good news is bad news is good news” thing is getting tiresome. It’s part of what our friend Mike Shedlock calls the Obamcare Effect.
First the barely good news.
The report showed that despite the dire warnings from federal bureaucrats, politicians and K Street lobbyists, the jobs market didn’t fall apart because Republicans forced the government to spend less than it planned.
Everything You Need to Know about Friday’s Unemployment Numbers
Initial Reaction
The establishment survey showed a gain of 195,000 and that is a very respectable number. However, the household survey shows a more modest gain of 160,000 jobs.
The civilian labor force rose by 177,000 thus the unemployment rate was steady at 7.6%. Digging beneath the surface, the numbers do not look so good.
326,000 Full-Time Jobs Lost
Involuntary part-time jobs increased by 322,000 while voluntary part-time jobs increased by another 110,000. Thus, of the 160,000 household survey gain, 486,000 of them were part-time jobs, a loss of 326,000 full-time jobs. This caused a spike of 0.5 percentage points in U6 (alternative unemployment) to 14.3%.
The Participation Rate rose 0.1 to 63.5%, 0.2 higher than the low of 63.3% dating back to 1979.
Obamacare Effect
Last month there was no jump in part-time employment which had me wondering if the the bulk of the Obamacare effect (employers reducing hours from 32 to 25 and hiring hundreds of thousands of new employees to make up the hours) had mostly played out.
