Data shows the headline unemployment rate continued to climb and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month
The US labor market grew by more than expected last month, recovering some of the damage inflicted by the federal government shutdown, according to official data.
An estimated 105,000 jobs were lost in October, and 64,000 were added in November, a highly-anticipated report showed on Tuesday.
Jobs growth was higher in November than anticipated by many economists, with a consensus forecast of some 40,000 jobs added. But the headline unemployment rate continued to climb – and hit 4.6%, a four-year high, last month.
The latest jobs numbers, typically released monthly, were delayed due to the government shutdown. They land amid significant uncertainty surrounding the strength of the US economy.
Raise your hand if you actually trust any of this data though. I know my hand isn’t up.
If anything, my guess is that number is way higher. I’d imagine they’d rather just lie and say that jobs are actually going up. If they can’t even say that I imagine the numbers are beyond fucked.
I saw a breakdown the other day postulating that the true unemployment rate is masked by the gig economy, because people are more likely to drive Uber than file for unemployment
If Uber and the other gigs didn’t exist the unemployment rate would probably be at least double what it is now, then again would something else have taken over in its place? Different conversation but kinda does highlight the power of these gig companies. Uber for example would be like these third largest US employer behind Walmart and Amazon if they did employ most the people who do it as the same equivalence of a part or full time job.
Here, I found the video
It’s youtube because I couldn’t find it anywhere else. But I think it addresses some of your points. The biggest point it makes is that at the same time that the greater economy lost 3 million jobs (or had that many layoffs), the gig economy gained roughly the same number of people.