The U.S. labor market posted a net loss of 388,000 jobs in June as the 213,000 jobs it created were overwhelmed by new entries to the civilian labor force.
The loss was presented as a gain by the mainstream news media, which habitually ignores new additions to the civilian labor force to make job creation appear more robust than it really is. Approximately 601,000 new workers joined the civilian labor force in June, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Analysis.
By ignoring population growth, market cheerleaders posing as legitimate economic journalists obscure the true state of our fading labor market. As well as the millions of U.S. jobs now being destroyed each year by automation, off-shoring and systemic age discrimination.
To facilitate this campaign of economic misinformation, news teams advance the myth that zero is break-even for U.S. job creation.
It’s not. It’s whatever number of additional workers is added to the civilian labor force the same month those new jobs are created. In June, that number was 601,000, as a boatload of new high school and college grads entered the labor force for the first time.
That means 601,000 was break-even for June. Not zero.
The number of new workers was 388,000 more than the 213,00 jobs created, which makes -388,000 the correct net change in the number of workers in the civilian labor force with jobs for the month of June. As in “we now have 388,000 more workers than jobs then we did in May and a net loss of the same amount.”
All of which makes June a terrible month for the labor market. Not a good one.
This is also why the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4 percent from 3.8 percent.
Everything is not OK. Our economy and labor market are failing America’s poor and faltering middle class, and our wealthy leaders now represent only the interests of global elites.
We are once again being subjected to “taxation without representation.” Just as we were during the the years which preceded the American Revolution.
