On Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor released its monthly employment report for May, and the headline numbers seemed impressive — 272,000 jobs added.
But while CNN celebrated a “blockbuster report” that “far outpaced economists’ expectations for 180,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.9%,” a deeper dive into the data reveals a much darker picture.
First, nearly one-sixth of the hiring came from the government sector, with 43,000 jobs added last month, which is consistent with the average monthly job gains of 52,000 in the government sector over the previous 12 months.
A disproportionate reliance on government hiring does not indicate an organically strengthening private-sector economy. Public payrolls are funded by taxpayer dollars rather than productive private investment and value creation.
Now do your report without the fake government jobs you created.
— jason🇺🇲🦅 (@jasonbull77) June 15, 2024
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It is the perfect picture of the difference in how the left and right perceive “successful” job growth.
Conservatives view overreliance on public sector hiring as economically artificial — a temporary balm if not backed by a vigorous private sector.
While employers kept hiring, the participation rate fell 0.2 percentage points to 62.5 percent. This is a major red flag that Americans are losing confidence in their job prospects and are not looking actively for work.
Have you and your family been affected badly by Bidenomics?
The data show that the number of outright “discouraged workers” who have given up searching for jobs skyrocketed by 25 percent in just two months to 462,000.
This level of labor force demoralization reveals that portions of society are being left behind in this purported recovery.
Even more disturbing, the survey of households showed employment declined by 408,000 in May, directly contradicting the payroll numbers. The unemployment rate went up to 4 percent, the third consecutive monthly increase, proving a strange mismatch between the employment numbers and the unemployment numbers.
Most concerning from an economic security standpoint was the shift in the types of jobs being created. Between April and May, full-time employment went down by 625,000, while part-time jobs increased by 286,000.
The increase in contingent, less-secure jobs with likely fewer benefits and lower pay raises serious doubts about the quality and sustainability of the supposed labor market revival.
Instead of a growing jobs market leading to broad-based opportunity, the data show an economy with a disproportionate number of government workers who can still obtain full-time work and outsiders facing discouragement and lengthy jobless spells or settling for part-time roles.
So, while the Biden administration and its establishment media cronies will continue to tout these numbers, this is not the picture of a healthy economy with organic job growth and a thriving business sector.
Underneath the headlines, the job growth masks employment imbalances and disillusionment spreading for a significant swath of workers.
Rather than true private-sector growth, the undercurrents reveal a deeply worrying lopsided economy with a growingly disenfranchised workforce, many of whom are struggling to manage their households with multiple part-time gigs.
