The miserable jobs report: things are looking bleak

Bad policy + uncontrollable events = more economic suffering for many people

The utterly predictable train wreck.

From the Business Insider website.

The Miserable Jobs Report Is More Confirmation The US Is Headed For Recession

Employers created just 69,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. That’s the fewest since May of last year.

Economists had been expecting nonfarm payrolls to increase by 150,000. (In fact, the result was lower than what any economist polled by Reuters had predicted.)

Moreover, companies added 49,000 fewer jobs than previously estimated in March and April. Talk about a slowdown.

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... and the U-3 unemployment rate rose to 8.2% from 8.1%. The broader U-6 gauge, which also measures underemployment, rose to 14.8% from 14.5%. The labor force participation rate did, finally, tick up to a still-low 63.8%, lending credence to the idea that the shrinking workforce reflects discouraged workers and not just demographics.