The headlines look decent enough, look at the New York Times, which reads "U.S. Adds 195,000 Jobs; Unemployment Remains 7.6%," until you look at the numbers, then those headlines, while technically correct, show how the media misleads.
Zero Hedge digs into the totals over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and provides the charts taken directly from the government site, which shows the real picture.
The Unemployment Rate stayed at 7.6% despite expectations of a drop to 7.5%, although the real action was in the underemployment rate which exploded from 13.8% to 14.3%.
Moving right along to the 195,000jobs added. A decent numbers for slow growth until you look at what jobs were added, which gives more credence to the term "part-time nation."
But how about the quality? In a word: not good. In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 - an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000. And looking back at the entire year, so far in 2013, just 130K Full-Time Jobs have been added, offset by a whopping 557K Part-Time jobs. And there is your jobs "quality" leading to today's market euphoria (if only for now).
Areas still at or above official unemployment rate: (seasonally adjusted)
Arizona- 7.8%
California- 8.6%
Connecticut- 8.0%
D.C.- 8.5%
Georgia- 8.3%
Illinois- 9.1%
Indiana- 8.3%
Kentucky- 8.1%
Michigan- 8.4%
Mississippi- 9.1%
Nevada- 9.5%
New Jersey- 8.6%
New York - 7.6%
North Carolina- 8.8%
Oregon- 7.8%
Rhode Island- 8.9%
South Carolina- 8.0%
Tennessee- 8.3%
Data obtained from Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Local Area Unemployment Statistics page. (Right side)
As Michigan News reported recently, Obamacare seems to be a large reason for the hike in part-time jobs more than full-time jobs.