Written by Michael Thervil
When we look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Employment Situation (Job Report), we can’t help but scratch our heads and wonder where they’re getting their numbers from. But before we provide you with the stats and figures that they have put out, let us first say that all is not necessarily as bad as you might think – but it could most certainly be better. Another thing that we have to say is that if it wasn’t for SNAP/EBT (food stamps), what you can empirically see on the street would be drastically different.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
“The unemployment rate for adult men (3.7 percent) decreased in September. The jobless rates for adult women (3.6 percent), teenagers (14.3 percent), Whites (3.6 percent), Blacks (5.7 percent), Asians (4.1 percent), and Hispanics (5.1 percent) showed little or no change over the month.”
“The number of people jobless for less than 5 weeks decreased by 322,000 to 2.1 million in September. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed over the month at 1.6 million. This measure is up from 1.3 million a year earlier. In September, the long-term unemployed accounted for 23.7 percent of all unemployed people.”
“Employment in food services and drinking places rose by 69,000 in September, well above the average monthly gain of 14,000 over the prior 12 months.”
“Health care added 45,000 jobs in September, below the average monthly gain of 57,000 over the prior 12 months. Over the month, employment rose in home health care services (+13,000), hospitals (+12,000), and nursing and residential care facilities (+9,000).”
The job sectors that showed the best signs of growth in America last month was the food/beverage/hospitality and healthcare. But these fields have dominated American industry growth charts for a very long time with no signs of slowing down. On the flip side, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), when it comes to the leading major category of “Food”, more people are eating out than eating at home. But this could mean one of two things; either Americans are making enough money to dine out more to a tune of a 4% increase last month. Or it could mean that dining out has become cheaper than buying groceries and cooking at home.
While energy commodities are down -10.1%, energy services are up 3.1%. When you look at energy commodities, oil took a -12.1% nosedive while gasoline of all types was also down -10.3%. When oil and gas is down – that means we have access to cheap energy. With Artificial Intelligence being the talk and rage of the town and with the holidays coming up, access to cheap energy is the thing to have. Proving our point electricity shot up 3.9% while natural gas was down 0.1%.
While tobacco products are up (8.4%) items such as apparel (0.3%), new vehicles (-1.2%), used vehicles (-10.4%), medical care (2.0%) and alcoholic beverages (1.9%) are either staying flat or nose diving. However, in the services sector, transportation services take the lead at 7.9%, followed by shelter 5.2%, and medical care service falling last at 3.2%. Taking the last previous 5 months into consideration, it's still safe to say that we have a service-based economy. With a service-based economy comes low wages. This is why it’s been extremely hard, if not impossible for America as a whole to break away from the increased inflation, shrinkflation, and “dragflation”; 3 trends that it’s been in effect for the last two years and show no signs of disappearing.
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