Welcome to The Fordyce Letter:

The Fordyce Letter

Straight Talk for the Recruiting Profession


Articles tagged 'unemployment'

Industry News

Jobs Report: U.S. Adds 243,000 Jobs, Unemployment Rate Drops Again



us-bureau-of-labor-statistics-logo

Strike up the band. Break out the confetti. The market’s going to love this. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent and non-farm jobs grew by 243,000 in January.

This morning’s monthly report from the U.S. Department of Labor blasted through even the most optimistic of expectations. The jobs gain would have been the largest since May 2010, except that the Labor Department’s data group adjusted 2011′s jobs numbers. Now, only March (+246,000) and April (+251,000) had stronger numbers.

January is the second consecutive month to beat estimates. Economists predicted anywhere from MarketWatch’s tepid 121,000 to the more optimistic 182,000 in the Bloomberg survey. None of the widely reported surveys saw a decline in the unemployment rate.

Indeed, the unemployment rate, which has been declining very slowly since hitting a peak of 10.1 percent in late 2009, is now at the lowest point since February 2009. The government report also put the number of unemployed at 12.8 million. A year ago it was at 13.9 million.

While governments continued to cut jobs — federal jobs were cut by 6,000 and local government cut 11,000 positions — the private sector added 257,000. This was more than 50 percent higher than the ADP estimate earlier in the week.

Industry News

ADP Report: 170k New Private Jobs In January



ADP-Employment-report

HR services company ADP says the U.S. added 170,000 private sector jobs in January, providing more evidence that while the economy isn’t backsliding, it also isn’t advancing.

Indeed the January number came in below the average of 182,000, which is what economists in a Bloomberg survey were expecting. A Dow Jones Newswires survey however put the number right at 170,000.

The ADP report also adjusted down the December numbers from the initial 325,000 to 292,000.  Nearly all the January gain, says ADP, came from companies with fewer than 500 workers, and all but 18,000 of the new jobs were in the service sector. Manufacturing added 10,000 workers during the month.

A year ago, ADP said 190,000 private sector jobs were created in January.

Industry News

2011 Ends With Lowered Unemployment and 200,000 New Jobs



us-bureau-of-labor-statistics-logo

Surprising economists and putting an upbeat end to 2011, the U.S. unemployment rate declined to 8.5 percent in December while the economy added 200,000 new non-farm jobs.

It was the fourth consecutive month of declines in the unemployment rate, and the sixth month of six-figure job growth. December’s unemployment rate is the lowest since early 2009.

The official numbers from the U.S. Department of Labor beat all but the most aggressive estimates. Economists were expecting the unemployment rate to rise, and predicted new job numbers in the 150,000 range.

Industry News

Good News and Bad News: Unemployment Is Down, But Job Growth Is Short of Estimates



us-bureau-of-labor-statistics-logo

The unemployment rate nudged down, but new jobs in October fell short of what economists expected, according to numbers released this morning by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Economists were expecting at least 100,000 new jobs to have been created last month. Instead, the numbers show only 80,000 new non-farm jobs, all of them coming from the private sector. Government at every level cut a total of 24,000 positions, continuing a trend that began mid-2008 at the state and local levels.

The New York Times described the increase as “mediocre,” and said the report offers little guidance about the direction of the U.S. employment outlook.

Despite the minor drop in the unemployment rate — from the 9.1 percent where it’s been since July, to 9.0 percent — the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said the total number of unemployed barely changed. In October, there were 13.9 million Americans out of work. In October, the number was almost 14 million.

Industry News

ADP Report: Private Sector Jobs Continued Slow Growth in August



fordyce-default

If you subscribe to the notion that any growth in jobs is good, then today’s report from ADP will be encouraging. The payroll processor said 91,000 new private sector jobs were created in August.

That’s still less than the 100,000 economists were expecting, and it’s about a third of what the U.S. needs each month to bring down the unemployment rate. The company, and Macroeconomic Advisers, its partner in the monthly report, also adjusted downward its July estimate to 109,000 from the original 114,000.

In ever-so-cautious language, the report says that the slow job growth in August is “at a pace below what would be consistent with a stable unemployment rate.” That means that should the trend continue, unemployment may rise.

Economists expect that when the official employment numbers are released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor, they’ll show the 9.1 percent unemployment rate unchanged. New jobs are expected to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 75,000 (Bloomberg News) to 80,000 (Dow Jones Newswires).

Industry News

Private Sector Job Growth Handily Beats Estimates, Buoys Markets



CareerBuilder-hiring-survey-graphic

News yesterday morning that new private sector jobs quadrupled in June over May’s anemic 36,000, while new unemployment claims dropped by far more than economists expected, sent stocks higher later in the day.

Payroll processor ADP said its analysis of job growth last month showed the economy added 157,000 private sector jobs. Economists were expecting, on average, that as little as half that many new jobs were added.

Meanwhile, initial claims for unemployment dropped last week by 14,000, to 432,000. That’s the lowest number of new claims in seven weeks and a sharper drop than the 3,000 or so predicted by economists. However, data collection was hampered by the holiday weekend, while Minnesota’s government shutdown added some 2,500 workers to the counts.

Still, the 4-week average of initial filings, a method for smoothing out weekly variations, declined to 424,750, a drop of 3,000 from the week before.

The two reports encouraged investors who bid up the Dow some 81 points at noon, New York time. All other major indices also saw gains.

Industry News

Not Much Improvement Expected in June Jobs Report



jobs_pic

Indeed’s monthly job trends numbers are out, and if they are any indication of what’s ahead this week when official employment numbers are released, the news is going to be, ahem, mixed.

On Friday, the U.S. Labor Department will release its monthly employment report for June. Surveys of economists put June’s job in range from the 100,000 predicted by Bloomberg News to Marketwatch’s more optimistic 115,000.

Better than the 54,000 new jobs in May, the estimates are still well below the 182.2 thousand average of the first four months of the year. As a result, economists are not expecting any change in the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

ADP’s National Employment Report, due out Thursday, will offer some guidance about the magnitude of the growth. Even though the reports measure employment differently, and rarely track perfectly, ADP report is closely watched by analysts and investors for signs of what to expect in the government’s Friday report.

Industry News

Surprising Economic Reports Help Lift U.S. Stocks



fordyce-default

With the world’s investors worrying about Japan’s nuclear problems and rebellions of all sorts in the Mideast, the U.S. enjoyed a little good news this week.

Initial unemployment filings dropped more than economists expected, while the Federal Reserve’s Philadelphia branch reported that manufacturing orders in its region were soaring.

The news helped lift the Dow to a nearly 150-point gain by late afternoon Thursday.

Industry News

Unemployment Rate Drops, But Few Jobs Added



fordyce-default

The U.S. unemployment rate dropped sharply in January to 9.0 percent, but the economy added only 36,000 non-farm jobs during the month, the smallest number in months.

The monthly jobs report from the U.S. Labor Department released this morning also included the annual revision of jobs numbers, which showed the economy created 162,000 fewer jobs since February 2010 than had originally been reported.

The January jobs count was far below the various consensus estimates that were mostly in the 140,000 to 148,000 range. Some economists had upped their predictions following Wednesday’s bullish report from ADP of 187,000 private sector jobs added during the month.

But the government report said the private sector produced only 50,000 new jobs in January, a number offset by the continuing decline in government employment. State and federal payrolls shed 4,000 workers, while local government cut 10,000 jobs.

Celebrating Successes

Celebrating Successes: Arlington Resources, Inc.



PCARnwgp

My name is Patty Casey, and I am the President of Arlington Resources, Inc. in Rolling Meadows, IL, which specializes in the placement of Human Resources professionals for direct hire, contract, and temporary services. We are very supportive of the many people in job transition today – so much so that we have actively made it a passion of ours. We host two professional networking groups at our office, and I run a networking group in the community.

We have two areas of placement, including Human Resources professionals through Arlington Resources, Inc., and Accounting and Finance  professionals through Casey Accounting & Finance Resources. Over six years ago, we started with our human resources group holding bimonthly meetings specifically to provide networking opportunities for those in transition. We meet so many great people in our profession, and we wanted to help as many people as we can and give back to the human resources community.