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U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

nbcnews.com

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Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#61

Post by epolanski »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #51
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #38

These jobs lost/gained and unemployment statistics, especially on a monthly basis, and when the numbers are so small, are just noise. Seasonal adjustments alone (baseline assumptions on how many people should be employed) make them meaningless, as does the government definition of being unemployed or looking for work. As far as the government is concerned if you have been looking for a job for so long and/or are so d…

"And then you have the current president's habit of just lying about everything…" And I suspect, sometime in the future, we're going to discover that the numbers were even worse than we thought they were—were covered up.

Job numbers have always been reviewed down after being released every single time since 2022.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#62

Post by gruez »

forlorn_mammoth wrote: post #17

What is also interesting is that the only sector thad added jobs was health care.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect

Any sector that's resistant to productivity growth is liable to become bigger and bigger part of the economy.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#64

Post by everforward »

HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #38

These jobs lost/gained and unemployment statistics, especially on a monthly basis, and when the numbers are so small, are just noise. Seasonal adjustments alone (baseline assumptions on how many people should be employed) make them meaningless, as does the government definition of being unemployed or looking for work. As far as the government is concerned if you have been looking for a job for so long and/or are so d…

I believe the BLS tracks all of these. I know they measure people who gave up on finding a job (they call them “discouraged workers” in stats normally).

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen underemployment charts too that seemed to track something like “people with degrees or certifications outside their field”.

They don’t normally make headlines, though. The charts and stats for those are clearly for economists and not formatted to make good headlines on the news.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#65

Post by bitmasher9 »

jordanb wrote: post #55
jimmydoe wrote: post #50

govt is resetting the baseline now, so we will see some good numbers in November. it's all about optics for mid term.

Maybe. But I think the government could just lie about both quarters and then restate after the election.

The worse Q2 looks the bigger improvement a bogus Q3 will look.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#66

Post by glaslong »

eigenspace wrote: post #29
forlorn_mammoth wrote: post #17

What is also interesting is that the only sector thad added jobs was health care.

Healthcare has consistently been one of the biggest drivers of US GDP and job growth numbers for years now. This is one of the major things that has helped explain why US consumer sentiment has been so out of step with headline numbers like employment, consumer spending, and GDP. It also helps explain why there's so many economists are saying they see limited evidence of a "K-shaped economy", and say they see positiv…

So perhaps we'll never get to a better healthcare+insurance market (nee "Free") through government, but eventually we will just all work in healthcare, and barter our nursing and dental skills in secret away from the insurance coders.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#67

Post by ericmay »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #51
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #38

These jobs lost/gained and unemployment statistics, especially on a monthly basis, and when the numbers are so small, are just noise. Seasonal adjustments alone (baseline assumptions on how many people should be employed) make them meaningless, as does the government definition of being unemployed or looking for work. As far as the government is concerned if you have been looking for a job for so long and/or are so d…

"And then you have the current president's habit of just lying about everything…" And I suspect, sometime in the future, we're going to discover that the numbers were even worse than we thought they were—were covered up.

Maybe, maybe not.

And when a vast majority of the population isn't working what do these numbers really tell us? If we have fewer jobs, but then the people doing those jobs are paid more and thus paying more in taxes, maybe the jobs numbers don't even matter (I'm not sure that's true, just for arguments sake).

And let's say they were covered up. Ok and what does that change? Are people who already hate Donald Trump going to vote harder and then, what? Pursue the same economic policy? Democrats are by and large aligned with his economic agenda.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#68

Post by debo_ »

Meanwhile, Canada adds 75k jobs in the same month.

> Gains were focused on the private sector, with strength in wholesale and retail trade, finance and insurance, and professional and scientific services. Public sector jobs fell by 14,500 amid an official bid to cut government spending.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/economy/article-can...

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#69

Post by shin_lao »

Sanzig wrote: post #47
shin_lao wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Citation needed. Canada's economic indicators are all extremely healthy, despite the trade war tantrum from its southern neighbour.

Canada has faced nearly a decade of weak per capita GDP growth and secular stagnation. Statistics Canada confirmed the country slipped into a technical recession after two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth in late 2025 and early 2026.

Re: U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs in July, a sudden reversal

#70

Post by staticman2 »

ethagnawl wrote: post #35

And, as a result, the market is ... up?

If the market expected a worse job loss than 23,000 that would make sense.

I'm not actually suggesting there's a good reason for market swings, just that bad news shouldn't necessarily cause the market to go down.

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