Labor Market

Pendulums are simple mechanical objects.  They are made of just three parts: a pivot, a rod, and a bob at the end of the rod.

Our economy is currently in the middle of its longest economic expansion ever.  Sometimes it’s tough to imagine the Great Recession ended over a decade ago or that the first recession of this century started over 18 years ago.  During both downturns, output was in steep decline and firms were hemorrhaging jobs by the hundreds of thousands each week (e.g., in March 2009, the net

Each month the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) puts out their Employment Situation report.  Regular reader’s saw the Atlas note on it yesterday morning.  This report covers two surveys: households and payrolls.  Our nation’s unemployment rate is derived from the household survey.  Each month the BLS lobs a call to 60,000 homes or so and asks those willing to ans

Atlas' Monday note covered the most recent employment report.  If you did not have a chance to see it or want to reference it, click here.  One of the more positive developments to come out of the report was an increase in average hourly earnings.  This is an important statistic because it sug

America’s labor market remained strong during November 2017 according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  After adding 244,000 in October (downwardly revised from 268,000), employers increased payrolls by 228,000 in the penultimate month of the year.  Our nation’s unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent, tied the lowest level since December 2000. 

America’s economy added many jobs in October 2017 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Employers filled 261,000 new jobs to start the final quarter of the year.  Additionally, the dismal tally reported a month earlier (minus 33,000) was upwardly revised to positive 18,000 net new jobs, and another 39,000 jobs were added to the August tally.  This revision restores