Charts of the Day: Durable Goods and Goods Employment In Gen
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Charts of the Day: Durable Goods and Goods Employment In General
Cheerleading noise went off the scale when GDP for the third quarter was announced at 3.5%. There was little fanfare when the revision came in at 2.2%. Now, the Big Picture Blog is having More Fun With (Quietly Revised) Numbers. http://tinyurl.com/yb5bja8
It struck me as a bit unusual that the data had been corrected as of January 15 — not coinciding with a scheduled Durable Goods release, which actually comes this Thursday, the 28th. Seemed to be a slip-it-in-there-while-no-one’s-looking type of thing. (And no, I’m really not a conspiracy theorist.)
Before Revision
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSg...s%2Bbefore.png
After Revision
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSg...ds%2Bafter.png
Goods Producing Jobs
As long as we are discussing goods, let's take a look at goods producing jobs.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSg...ing%2Bjobs.png
The above chart courtesy of the Business Insider.
We've gone from providing jobs in profit-making private industry to providing jobs in profit-eating government work. Toward the end of 2007, the total number of government jobs exceeded the total number of goods producing jobs. Welcome to the government payroll economy.
(Hat tip: Tom Iacono, who produced a version of this chart here. To check it, we collect the BLS data and re-ran the figures.)
As long as we are discussing jobs let's take a look at the 4 week moving average of Weekly Claims. http://www.workforcesecurity.doleta.gov ... 012110.asp
In the week ending Jan. 16, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 482,000, an increase of 36,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 446,000. The 4-week moving average was 448,250, an increase of 7,000 from the previous week's revised average of 441,250.
4-Week Moving Average Initial Claims % Change From Year Ago
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nSTO-vZpSg...2010-01-16.png
Wal-Mart Cuts 10,000 Jobs
While pondering the direction of weekly claims, please consider Wal-Mart cuts more than 10K Sam’s Club jobs. http://www.freep.com/article/20100124/B ... b-staffers
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said today it is cutting more than 10,000 jobs at Sam’s Club, representing about 9% of the warehouse club operator’s staff, as it outsources its product-sampling department to marketing company Shopper Events and eliminates another unit.
In the memo, Cornell said Shopper Events would hire “roughly the same number of peopleâ€
