Zero Private-Sector Jobs Created In Past 11 Years

By Jed Graham
Investors.com
Jan. 29, 2010

It's been pretty widely discussed that the past decade was a lost one for job creation. But focusing on private payrolls alone would also wipe out nearly all of the employment gains from 1999, among the better years on record.

Next Friday's employment report comes with an annual benchmark revision that the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated would erase 855,000 private jobs (and add 31,000 government jobs).

Subtract that from the seasonally adjusted December payroll number of 108.44 million and that would leave just 107.59 million private payroll jobs. That's the least since January 1999, when there were 107.40 million.

That's prior to payroll changes in the current month, but an increase in private payrolls could be optimistic given that the 448,250 average level of initial jobless claims over the past four weeks is still pretty high.

If you then consider the jobs that don't factor into the BLS payroll survey -- farm jobs and the self-employed -- the absence of private-sector job creation might stretch back a couple of additional months. According to the BLS household survey, farm jobs have been on a steady decline while the size of the self-employed population has budged very little.

There are a few interpretations. Those who don't see a continuing jobless recovery make the case that payrolls have been cut to the bone and will spring back, at least somewhat, to keep pace with even modest demand growth.

An alternative perspective is that the nation's job-creating machine is badly broken and needs to be repaired. But some might disagree whether a government or less-government solution is required.

What do you think?

Meanwhile, in case you were wondering, government jobs are up by 2.4 million since January 1999.













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