What Happened To The Jobs?

Why is the unemployment rate staying relatively level (actually, a little bit “down”) at 6.7%? That’s because there is a shrinking pool of people who consider themselves workers. Almost 100 million Americans aren’t in the workforce.

People Not In Labor Force Soar To Record 91.8 Million; Participation Rate Plunges To 1978 Levels http://t.co/pgrHr9k1SR

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 10, 2014

And who’s in the labor force but not working? Well, one way to slice that is by education level. (You can also slice it by race, which provides equally disturbing numbers.)

Unemployment by education: No HS diploma (9.8%), high school graduates (7.1%), some college (6.1%), college or more (3.3%)

— Zachary Goldfarb (@Goldfarb) January 10, 2014

That whole long-term unemployment benefit kerfuffle ended badly, which is a shame.

Average duration of unemployment is 37.1 wks. Good thing there are emergency benefi…oh wait, no…

— Duke (@DukeStJournal) January 10, 2014

New jobs are in low-paying fields — and those low-paying fields are ever-more-low-paying (in particular, “leisure, hospitality and retail”).

#BLS In the largest category in which jobs WERE created (Retail +55K) wages DECLINED by 6 cents and hour from $14.14 to 14.08/hr #Deflation

— Dan Alpert (@DanielAlpert) January 10, 2014

And workers have less full-time work.

The average work week edged down to 34.4 hours in December. More highlights from the jobs report: http://t.co/nwJhEwSfXr

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) January 10, 2014

This makes people nervous.

Dec NFP: What cannot be ignored is the slowing in avg hourly wages to 1.8% Y/Y. It’s not sufficient to support spending at recent levels.

— Joseph Brusuelas (@joebrusuelas) January 10, 2014

Meanwhile, a big chunk of the labor force is aging out.

Only 62.8% of U.S. adult population participating in labor market — matching lowest level since 1978. http://t.co/Fv64X6HPls

— CNN Breaking News (@cnnbrk) January 10, 2014