Earlier this week the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (the “Bureau”) announced that the US unemployment rate had dropped to 8.6% and that 278,000 jobs had been created. On the surface, this seems like great news; however, I have a healthy degree of skepticism over an improving U.S. job market.
Let me explain. US employment peaked in March 2007 and bottomed in October 2009 losing 7.94 million jobs in the process. Unemployment rose by 8.9 million people over the same period, so it’s reasonable to assume that nearly 1 million people entered the labor force over that time and were unable to find jobs.
Since the bottom in October, 2009, unemployment has fallen by 2.3 million but this drop includes 595,000 people who are no longer looking for work but would surely take a job in a New York minute if one was offered. If one nets out this “marginally attached” group the number of unemployed has now only fallen by 1.7 million people. So there are still 7.2 million people who either lost their jobs or couldn’t find one during the credit crisis and recession.
The Bureau reported that the labour force has actually fallen by 138,000 people over the same period. How can the labour force not grow when the population is growing? According to World Bank estimates and the U.S. Census Bureau, US population has grown by 3.6 million people; 2.0 million of which are between the ages of 20 and 65…working age. In other words, on average, the U.S. has added an additional 90,000 working age people per month since October 2009. Where did these people go if the labour force didn’t grow?
Even if one accepts the Bureau’s 2.2 million jobs having been created since October, 2009, that barely absorbs the growth in the population of working aged citizens let alone makes any dent on those who actually lost their jobs.
It gets worse. If one adds the number of people who are working part time because they can’t get full time work to the number of unemployed the total is a staggering 15.6% of the U.S. labour force! One out of every 6.5 working people in the U.S. are earning significantly less than they were before the recession.
Why does this matter? The consumer represents 70% of GDP in the US. Without a meaningful improvement in jobs, the US economy will continue to languish. When making decisions about where to invest we need to understand whether the economy is improving and whether corporate profits are likely to grow from improving demand. Our analysis goes much deeper than the reported headlines. We consult economists, analysts, our independent investment managers, our clients who own businesses, and we conduct our own research. Digging deeper enables us to gain more insight into whether an apparently improving statistic actually translates into a growing economy. In the case of reported labour statistics, we don’t believe it does.
I opened the Globe and Mail today to read with interest the article, 
