U.S. nonfarm payrolls grew by a seasonally adjusted 295,000 jobs in February, the Labor Department said Friday. The economy has now added more than 200,000 jobs for 12 straight months, the longest such streak since 1995.
More locally, Los Angeles County shed more than 62,000 jobs in January although the state’s unemployment rate edged down to 7.9 percent from 8 percent the previous month and 8.8 percent a year earlier.
The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid last week rose to its highest level since May, but economists dismissed the increase as weather-related and said the jobs market remained solid.
The U.S. economy lost more than 2.7 million jobs between the middle of December and the middle of January, but the big news from the January jobs report was that the economy added 275,000 jobs during the same period. . . reporting a statistically adjusted figure as if it were original data is a mistake, and a significant distortion of reality that only adds to public distrust of the government and the media. People know that jobs were scarcer in January than in February, even if the government told them the opposite.
Economic activity in the Twelfth District continued to improve moderately during the reporting period of early January through mid-February. Overall price inflation remained modest, while wage inflation was moderate. Retail sales and demand for business and consumer services increased moderately. Overall manufacturing activity picked up, while agricultural conditions were mixed. Real estate activity advanced, mainly in the multifamily construction sector. Lending activity increased modestly.
Jobless claims increased by 7,000 to 320,000 in the week ended Feb. 28, the most since May, from 313,000 in the prior period, a Labor Department report showed Thursday in Washington. The median forecast of 52 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expected claims of 295,000.
Payroll processor ADP said Wednesday that companies added 212,000 jobs last month, a solid gain, though down from 250,000 in the previous month. January’s figure was revised up from 213,000.
In the years ahead we can expect these trends to continue, or even accelerate. There is little reason to believe that states like California or New York are going to re-industrialize or reform their planning systems to help reduce housing prices. They will remain increasingly bifurcated between a very well-educated, affluent population clustered around the most elite industries and an underclass of poor, undereducated people. California, for example, ranks 14th in percentage of college graduates, down from 7th in 1970 but in terms of high school non-graduates it has soared from 44th to 2nd.
The findings are the latest to show that while America’s economy is finally picking up steam again six years after the Great Recession, many black and Hispanic Americans—and indeed, much of the nation’s middle-class—are being left behind.
The California Supreme Court ruled this week that evidence that a project may have a significant effect on the environment does not, in and of itself, preclude the use of a categorical exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
The California Chamber of Commerce and large coalition of small businesses, trade associations and local chambers are supporting a bill that promotes using a scientific exposure assessment when deciding whether to warn under Proposition 65.
That’s made gasoline much more expensive here than anywhere else in the nation — an average of $3.44 for a gallon of regular as of 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to price-tracker GasBuddy.com. Hawaii is the only other state with an average price above $3 a gallon.
California had the fifth-highest wages in the country, with a Q2 2014 average weekly wage of $1,072. The state’s housing prices went up 8.12% between Q3 2013 and Q3 2014, the third-biggest jump in the country. The state government’s huge 2013 surplus of $32 billion was the largest of any state.
Labor-force participation—the percentage of the population that is looking for work or employed—is now lower than at the end of the recession. There is a lot of room to grow. And the growth of productivity—the amount of goods and services produced per worker-hour—has hovered around 1% for the past five years, less than half the nearly 2.5% average of the previous 20 years. There is room for acceleration there, too.
Lately, we have seen good job growth numbers which has led to a reduction in the unemployment rate. At first glance, this is an encouraging sign for the economy. But when we have a closer look at data on business dynamics, it is clear that the overall economy has not come back to its full strength. Specifically, the economy is still not creating as many new firms as it did before the recession.