Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 125,000 in June as the government laid off 225,000 temporary census workers. That was roughly in line with expectations of a 130,000-job drop. Private sector jobs rose by 83,000, below estimates of 110,000.
Investors wouldn't know it from the brutal equities sell-off in response to the report, but it offered more positive signs than it's getting credit for. The crises in Europe and the Census's "stealing" workers from the private sector mask some reasons for optimism.
Last month, the U.S. Census added 48,000 new jobs to the economy, and over the next two, it will add as many as 700,000 more. But as welcome as those jobs are, they're only temporary: How will Americans react when the end of the Census puts those numbers back into the job-loss column?
March was a good month for employment growth after all, as the economy added 162,000 nonfarm payroll jobs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. It was the biggest rise in U.S. employment since March 2007, when the economy added 239,000 jobs.
The U.S. Census Bureau is pushing residents to mail Census 2010 forms back ahead of the April 1 deadline. Why is that so important? States could stand to lose an average of $1,400 for each person not counted.
Poverty is growing in the recession, with nearly 40 million Americans living at or below the official poverty level in 2008. That figure includes more than 14 million children and a growing class of "working poor."
As the recession has sent hundreds of thousands of people moving from place to place in search of jobs, Texas has experienced a major surge in population growth. Lita Epstein takes a peek at what this means for America's political, economic, and social structure.
