The September 7th Bureau of Labor Statistics press release created an uproar with the announcement that the U.S. added only 96,000 net jobs in August. This “anemic” job creation was accompanied by a downward revision in the July data from 22,000 to 141,000.
The private sector added 103,000 jobs for the month. This means government employment declined by 7,000 workers.
The report came on the heels of the ADP employment report which stated that private nonfarm employment had risen by 201,000 in August and July private sector employment had been revised upward by 10,000. Clearly, the two reports on the same topic tell two distinct stories.
At the same time BLS national unemployment slipped to 8.1%. The decline is relatively insignificant.
Of greater concern than the numbers is the impact the current economic conditions are having on the culture in the American workforce. While it is common for workers to feel like they are not valued or part of the decision making process, those feelings are exacerbated during the current economic environment.
Deborah Brackney, Vice President of the Mountain States Employers Council, recently said in an interview with 9News that “Anywhere from 50-60 percent of employees right now say that if they could find another job, they would leave their current employer.” She also added that a recent Gallup poll shows that only 30 percent of employees are engaged in the workplace. Lost productivity associated with this lack of involvement in the company is approximately $300 billion. A critical source of the problem is the lack of communications in the workplace.
In other words, the impacts of the Great Recession have touched both unemployed and employed workers in significant ways.
On average, Colorado nonfarm employment is about 1.72% of the U.S. total. If Colorado grows at the same pace as the U.S. the state data will reflect a gain of about 1,650 jobs. We’ll see what BLS says on September 21.
©Copyright 2011 by CBER.