A Recessionary Job Market
In what is the most recessionary jobs report since the last official downturn in 2001, payrolls fell 63,000 last month, and were down 101,000 in the private sector, according to today’s report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment actually ticked down slightly, from 4.9% to 4.8%, but this was wholly due to labor force withdrawal. Employment in the more volatile survey of households—the one from which the unemployment rate is drawn—fell over 250,000.
The payroll contraction was the largest loss in almost five years.
The report is replete with evidence that the troubled, if not contracting, economy has reached the job market:




