Employment Rate Falls, Despite Strong Job Growth
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November 2, 2007 (Jobs Byte)
Employment Rate Falls, Despite Strong Job Growth
Jobs Byte by Dean Baker
For Immediate Release: November 2, 2007
Contact: Alan Barber, (202) 293-5380 x115
Declining restaurant sales, coupled with strong job growth, implies plunging productivity.
The employment rate edged down to 62.7 percent,
the lowest rate since June of 2005, even though the establishment
survey showed the economy adding a stronger than expected 166,000 jobs.
The job growth was concentrated in restaurants, health care, and
temporary employment. The three sectors together accounted for 70.2
percent of the job gains reported for the private sector in October.
While the jobs numbers reported in October are surprisingly strong,
most of the other information in this month’s report is considerably
less positive. The drop in employment rates is especially discouraging.
This decline has been an ongoing trend since the end of 2006, with the
employment to population ratio (EPOP) down by 0.6 percentage points
over this period. This drop is being driven by younger workers, as
people over age 55 continue to work in growing numbers.
Workers between the ages of 35 and 44 have experienced the sharpest
drop in EPOPs, falling 0.8 percentage points from 81.5 percent in
January to 80.7 percent in October. This is a full 2 percentage points
below their peak EPOP of 82.7 percent in 2000. The falloff for men over
this period has been sharper than for women, with EPOPs for men falling
0.8 pp over the last year, while EPOPs for women are down by just 0.2
pp.
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