The U.S Bureau of Labor and Statistics released a new report earlier in the week that has economists worried. According to the report, 64,000 new jobs were created in September, which is a slowdown from previous months. In total, there were 95,000 non farm jobs lost and 159,000 government jobs lost. Most of the decline in government jobs happened on the local levels.
For the 14.8 million people who are out of work, this report is not good news. The report stated that the average unemployed worker had been searching for a job for 33.3 weeks. One of the categories listed by the BLS was discouraged workers. Discouraged workers are described as people who are “not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them”. So, basically these are people who have just given up trying to find a job, and sadly, there are 1.2 million of them.
As for the Manufacturing industry, employment rates have changed very little in September, and has, for the most part, stayed that way since May. During the first five months of the year, 134,000 jobs were created. In addition, the average workweek for a manufacturing job decreased slightly to 40.1 hours per week and factory over time was the same at an average of 3.0 hours.
With all of this bad news, it isn't too hard to see why the largest gain in employment was in the food services and drinking places. They had a 34,000 increase in jobs over the past month and have risen by 104,000 in 2010.
Despite the bleak report, a New York Time article that the Federal Reserve is thinking about undertaking unconventional monetary policy measures to encourage hiring. Economists expect the Fed to buy long term bonds. It seems that the stock market has already considered this a done deal, and the stock market is seeing some increases as investors become more confident.
If only there was a way to measure the confidence of the American worker. Telling everyone that the Fed is going to print some money and make it better doesn't really seem to help my confidence in the job market. But maybe that is just me. So, let me know in the comments section how confident are you in the job market?
Are you looking for a job in Manufacturing? Take a look at ManufacturingJobs.
By Melissa Kennedy- Melissa is a 9 year blog veteran and a freelance writer, along with helping others find the job of their dreams, she enjoys computer geekery, raising a teenager, supporting her local library, writing about herself in the third person and working on her next novel.
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