It’s Not a Good Friday for the Jobs Report

This report was terrible and it was not because of the weather. Analysts were expecting 247,000 jobs to be created in March. The number of jobs created was an astoundingly low 126,000 jobs. “That’s the fewest number of jobs created since December 2013. That means we did better in the polar vortex of 2014.

The Labor Force Participation Rate edged down to 62.7,matching it’s record low of 1978, when far few women were in the labor force. 93.1 million Americans are not working, as 277,000 left the labor force.

For every person that found a job, more than 2 threw in the towel and left the labor market. Among them who did get jobs, were all to workers age 55 and over,” states Peter Schiff.

The labor force has been turned upside down, and the only jobs being created are those for aged workers, Americans 55 and over. The reason is two-fold: with savings rates at zero, Americans who were on the verge of retiring found that the fruit of their labor was worth nothing under ZIRP (and may well be punished under the upcoming NIRP) as their savings (and fixed income investments) generate zero interest income, while young Americans would rather stay in college by the millions funded generously by trillions in Uncle Sam student loans.

In any event, this is nothing short of a recipe for disaster, as aged workers have no leverage to demand higher wages (hence the lack of any broad wage growth), while Millennials and other young Americans, instead of entering the work force and accumulating job skills as well as wages, get more and more in debt.

In short: America continues to be a country where  there are only jobs for old men, those 55 and older, who saw a 329,000 increase in jobs in the past month. Every other age group saw job losses!

Since the start of the Second Great Depression, only the 55 and older age group has seen job increases. Those 55 and younger are still 1.2 million jobs below the level they were are on December 2007.

Here is just the number of workers aged 55 and older. At 33.1 million they just hit a new all time high.

ZH reports that four of the five most active job categories hiring in March were also the lowest paid:

• Education and Health saw the addition of 38K workers
• Retail Trade added 26K
• Leisure and Hospitality added another 13K
• Temp workers increased by 11K.

We point this out just in case anyone is still worried about “wage growth.”

Article authored by Carol Serpa. You can find the original story right here.