The BLS establishment survey doesn't get much press love or headline buzz when it comes to the monthly employment statistics, despite the survey's better accuracy than the population survey. For the past year, 1.899 million payroll jobs have been added and payrolls now stand at 132,821,000. From a year ago this is a 1.5% increase. The below pie chart breaks down March 2012 payrolls by major industry's percentage of total employment.
The BLS reports on individual occupations and wages. This is a separate survey from the employment report and unfortunately there is significant lag in the breakdown of 800 different specific job categories from the current overall employment statistics. While waiting for the March unemployment report to be dissected and digested, it might be of interest to look at the most recent occupational survey statistics from the BLS. For May 2011, 10 months ago, we have some seriously crappy jobs dominating the labor market.
We've heard many a great speech from President Obama before. Last night's State of the Union was no exception. Here at The Economic Populist we say show me the money. We've heard soaring rhetoric from President Obama too many times, yet behind the words, deeds are either opposite or M.I.A.
Still, Obama gave a lot of lip service to U.S. manufacturing and jobs. To even get U.S. manufacturing on the national policy radar is a feat in and of itself. The actual SOTU transcript is on the White House site with a flurry of videos, social media and round tables to boot. Can't say this administration suffers from a lack of word generation!
That said, we all take President Obama at this point with a strong grain of salt. We've been so disappointed already.
Economic Policy Institute Economist Robert Scott noted China's currency manipulation was sorely absent from SOTU. Yet also noted the administration's hands are often tied by Congress:
Kudos to him for continuing to highlight this important issue, but he failed to mention the main cause of our manufacturing woes in the first place: currency manipulation.
A new year, a new day and a flurry of economic and financial predictions. Who are we to buck the trend? Yet, buck the trend we shall. While many news articles claim jobs will appear in 2012 and the economy is on the mend, uh, we don't think so. What we have is America stuck in a Labrea tar pit of bad policy and a never ending middle class head shrink.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission has issued their new, comprehensive annual report on China for 2011. The 414 page report (large pdf), is a comprehensive, with details on trade, economics, currency manipulation, development strategy, military actions and human rights abuses.
The Wall Street Journal finally said what most working people know, there is no worker, or skills or talent shortage in America. The real problem is employers, their arcane human resources policies, and the demand for instant ready workers like some sort of ready to eat microwave meal.
It seems House Democrat Peter Defazio (OR-4th), really likes the Republican Jobs Plan, otherwise known as Snakes on a Plane. Watch his praise and approval below!
The problem with the original stimulus wasn't that it wasn't big enough. It was not smart enough. What we need is true domestic stimulus. If you're going to spend our money to stimulate our economy, stop shipping our dough to China instead.
Is this possible? Can one stop the offshore outsourcing of jobs, especially jobs created with our hard earned taxpayer dollars? Is there anything that can be done which actually goes to American workers? Why yes there is. First and foremost, all stimulus funding should have two mandatory requirements, Buy American and Hire America. If a government is enacting Keynesian economic stimulus, they must keep that spending within the domestic economy they wish to stimulate. The last thing America's workers need is stimulating China's economy and generating more jobs for them.
We've heard many a great speech from President Obama before. Last night's State of the Union was no exception. Here at 
A new year, a new day and a flurry of economic and financial predictions. Who are we to buck the trend? Yet, buck the trend we shall. While many news articles claim jobs will appear in 2012 and the economy is on the mend, uh, we don't think so. What we have is America stuck in a Labrea tar pit of bad policy and a never ending middle class head shrink. 
You want to see some jobs? Take on 
Paul Krugman shows the 2009 economic stimulus was 
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