According to a new report from the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics this week, the US economy added 275,000 jobs for the month of February while the unemployment rate rose to 3.9%. In what has become a predictable ritual, reporters from the legacy media were sure to declare "Another strong jobs report." Heather Long of the Washington Post, who is always careful to toe the regime line, announced that "The hiring boom continues" and we are in "An incredible era" for job growth.
What we really find is that the total number of employed persons has fallen by nearly 900,000 jobs in three months and that 1.8 million full-time jobs have disappeared over the same period.
Government jobs continue to make up a larger and larger share of what new job growth there is.
Another concerning aspect of this report is the fact that growth in government jobs makes up about 20 percent of all new jobs.
Of the 275,000 new payroll jobs added according to the establishment survey, 52,000 of those were government jobs.
As we can see in the graph, a sustained drop in THS jobs points to recession rather than a jobs boom.
Temporary jobs are often the first jobs to be eliminated by firms, and as the BLS puts it, "Flexible labor arrangements provided by temp agencies allow firms to scale down their operations readily and without the added expense of separation pay or having to let go of their best workers." In a weakening economy, there is no longer a need to use THS workers as a means of screening potential new workers or adding work hours to supplement the full-time work force.
https://mises.org/mises-wire/employment-falls-third-month-spite-50000-new-government-jobs
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