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Average Weekly Hours, The Law Of Large Numbers, And An April 618,000 Payroll... Decline?
While everyone was focusing on the quantitative component of today's BLS number, it appears what was once again missed in all the noise was the mention of the qualitative aspects of the BLS report: those parts which actually look at the quality of new jobs, not only their earnings power (which as we showed in the breakdown of the April job gains were all toward the lower paying spectrum of available jobs) but also taking productivity and labor demand into the picture. It is here that we find this month's biggest BLS report weakness.
While on one hand, readers are familiar with the following chart showing the constant tapering in growth of wages for production and non-supervisory employees...
... this is primarily driven by the ever-declining wage leverage that US employees have, and wage deflation. Indicatively, in a true recovery, this chart should show a rising line, not a secular decline, and now the second drop in a row, posting it weakest rise since November of 2012.
However the bigger problem with this month's job report was the drop in average weekly hours for all employees (not just those in production and nonsupervisory positions), which posted a surprising and disappointing decline from 34.4 to 34.6 on expectations of an unchanged number. This amounts to a 12 minute shorter workweek on average for the entire US labor force.
Hardly notable?
It is when one considers that there were 135,474,000 full time Establishment Survey employees in April (rising by the much trumpeted 165,000), all of which worked on average 34.4 hours (down from 34.6 in March) according to the BLS. Multiply these together and one gets 4,660,305,600 total hours worked weekly in April, a drop of 21,385,800 million hours from the 4,681,691,400 total hours worked each week in March.
Then apply the average hourly wages of $23.83 in March and $23.87 in April, and the total weekly wages paid out in March ($111.565 billion) compared to April ($111.231 billion) amounted to a drop of $323.2 million on a weekly basis.
Had the average weekly hours stayed flat as expected, this number should have been an increase of $323.5 million or a $646.8 million swing!
In other words, the US economy added 165,000 jobs and yet US businesses paid $323.2 million less in total wage compensation: only the second time there was a decline in the gross total monthly wages paid in 2013.
What does this mean for the bottom line?
Well, had the BLS reported flat average weekly hours worked at 34.6 as Wall Street had expected, while companies were paying out the same amount of hourly wages in April, the result would have been that instead of the BLS reporting a 165,000 increase in jobs, it would have had to report a drop of, drumroll, 618 thousand workers, or total April workers of 134,690,913: a 783 thousand negative worker swing, more than wiping out not only all the gains of April, but all prior upward monthly revisions as well.
MarketWatch adds some granularity:
Some analysts applauded the 29,000 gain in retail-sector jobs in April as a sign that consumer spending is holding up well in the face of the fiscal drag caused by the tax hikes and government spending cuts.
But aggregate weekly hours worked in retail plunged by 0.7% in April, which is the equivalent of cutting 11,000 jobs. Suddenly, the report doesn’t look so rosy.
So productivity increases? Economic Recovery? Or just the BLS (such an expert in dropping the unemployment rate at the expense of the Labor Force Participation rate) showing its exquisite familiarity with the law of large numbers?
You decide.
(P.S. this entire analysis is trivial as the entire difference "on the margin" in the jobs number is based on seasonal adjustments which have a +/- 200,000 error rate. However, the algo response to today's BLS flashing red headline - all that really matters - would have been vastly different had the BLS reported a negative number, which just also happens to fall in the margin of error).
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Sigh! Reality matters not!
Makes no diff, algos and Wall Street will say thats 'good news' for the rest of the people left in the labor force because they will pick up the slack in wages.
Exactly. I'm tired of fighting the casino.
I just want to say one thing, I have a man crush for Tyler Durden. Is there a better website?
Can you say "Obamacare"....?
It's clear that companies are ramping up for O'care by hiring more employees and giving them less wages and hours.
Thanks Obamer!!!
Yep.
Gotta get those weekly hours under 30...
Cut hours and make up difference with food stamps.
They forgot to include the increases in intangible wages (e.g. smiles, good moods, pats on the back, etc.).
Don't think of it as less work hours but, rather, More Leisure Time! Yeah Baby, we are living in an age of abundant leisure time.
dryam
Are you, per chance, professionally playing basketball?
Indicatively, in a true recovery, this chart should show a rising line, not a secular decline, and now the second drop in a row, posting it weakest rise since November of 2012.
The difference is the secular decline is driven by a number of factors. Americans can't compete in a global economy where more-or-less slave labour is accepted and even argued for (neo-liberal economists always talk about the major benefits in countries like Bangladesh).
Sad reality is no one wants to hire American workers if it can be avoided. I was in a meeting on a major development project and we were discussing labour costs / logistics around hiring Americans (project was in US) and the project manager actually laughed saying it wasn't an issue as 90% of the work would easily be handled by temporary foreign workers (US calls them guest workers). To the bottom line of the project labour costs were a minor component, but why waste money on Americans?
They said the same thing about Japan and Taiwan in the 80s.
Hey DS can u pull up that market crash scenario you posted last week with the lock limit down? I would like to show it to someone.
9:30:00 Market Opens
9:30:01 First Circuit Breaker (10%) triggered
10:30:01 Market Reopens after 1 hour halt
10:30:02 Second Circuit Breaker (20%) triggered
12:30:02 Market Reopens after 2 hour halt
12:30:03 Third Circuit Breaker (30%) triggered. Market halted for rest of day.
Markets opened for a total of 3 seconds.
Call it a day and time to go home. Repeat process the next day. NOW that is whats gonna happen fonz.
See this for details: http://www.nyse.com/press/1364465929027.html
Thanks again. Interesting stuff.
"Hey DS..."
I was just gunna routinely answer till I found out u meant it for "Divided States".
Algos go home?????........going home would imply humans are involved in the markets.......
I'm interested to know what they do with a bidless market.
Forward
The "truth" will not set you free! It will only torment you. Go with the fiat lie or you will likely be destroyed with your PM's and non-conforming notions of a republic, justice, and visions of founding fathers.
Seriously, why do folks anticipate PM's will be immune at some point to propaganda, manipulation, and price fixing? So many ways to change the game to avoid losing control. PM's, like so many things, have simply been neutralized.
If this is a war, it's akin to natives using bow and arrows against unseen drones piloted from the other side of the world...mismatch of technology and morals. Infinite fiat, infinite leverage, infinite propaganda, infinite control. All that against a poor supply / demand curve. It never had a chance. Copper jumps 7 fucking % today...and gold down and silver flattish. Even oil up 15% in the last couple weeks on falling demand
I'm not questioning PM's fundamentals...I'm just worried fundy's no longer matter in a fascist state/globe. If silver comes out the 2week wedge to the downside...I will need to do some soul searching.
Keeping your money in fiat will get you Hamboned by TPTB. If you purchase PM's correctly (cash, no accounts, no electronic trace), you can always hide it from the criminals who run our country. I do understand that it has no production value, and that it is savings and you can only spend it, but think about purchasing farmland within the US. If things get bad enough, do you really think the US will allow individual farms to produce food, when a multi-national can produce processed shit at a much higher rate?
Basically I believe that with PM's you will be the least fucked, in a country/society that will eventuallly be extremely fucked. They could institute price controls domestically, but what will happen when other countries view our currency as "just paper," or "just numbers on a computer screen"? They can't control everything (as hard as they will). Eventually it will catch up to them (revolution or crash USSR style).
That being said I am looking to use some of my PM's (that were lost in yet another boating accident) to purchase farmland outside the US in hopes that they will not subject their citizens to outright, absolute fascism (which I think the US eventually will [you don't collect a nation's guns for nothing]).
I tend to take a more neutral view of gold, I view it as a hedge. My allocation is dependant on my risk assessment of my other allocations. The risk of those other allocations (including apparently even my savings account) has gone up drastically in recent years, ergo, my allocation of phys has gone up drastically. And no, I never reduce the allocation that I do put in. I give a shit primarily about return OF capital. At this point, if you're not at least 33% in physical gold in your primary fiat of choice, you are simply wrong.
Reality is for people who can't handle the hopium, man.
keep buying till it doesn't work anymore
IF BLS had reported a negative number, the ES would be 1630 on the presumption that QE rate would be increased.
"What does this mean for the bottom line?"
It means they will revise the hourly number up next month and call this month a 'mistake'.
What is Monday looking like to you slaughterer? I'm seeing yet another facerip of the shorts.
"Seasonally adjusted" and "Birth/Death Model". all you really need to know.
OT: Culture in Decline #5
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeswJY0o2uA
Oh great. Another Socialist telling us that all evil stems from Capitalism. After all, everyone knows the secret to world peace is to make everyone equally shabby. The one valid point the video makes is that the drug war is a scam and needs to stop.
Socialist? Hardly. Joseph is simply stating that poverty is the biggest problem there is, and crony capitalism and the lack of creativity are the two factors responsible for most poverty today.
Time to rethink economics and what "Socialism" is, right? Think hard my friend, it will get you far.
Thanks for posting this! The deeper you dig, the worse it looks!
Shhhh! Don't try telling that to Wall St! They're not listening to reality! They're too busy building a Fed-fueled bubble!
and to think, Obamacare doesn't take full effect until Janurary 1st 2014. rest in peace 40 hour work week, hello two part-time jobs.
I love you pic..
Hey Mon! I got me three jobs. Unless you have three jobs, you're a "lazy coconut bloodclot".
From Living Color (4:02)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpu5_3qk4KM
so there's time for businesses to fire full timers to get under 50 employees???
This is a slick way of "creating jobs", kinda like France lowering the hour/workweek hoping employers hire more "full time" employees(albeit part time).
yup, the "58'ers". Two 29 hour/week jobs and no benefits.
Who cares we are having a nice rally in TSY yields... This is the only thing that matters...
edit
Denniger comes up with the same findings earlier
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=220385
And remove the fake birth/death additions as well and it is even worse!
Count me as one of the newly-employed for the month of April. Though, I suspect it won't last through the month of May, as my position is of the short-term temporary variety.
Then, it's back to receiving UC benefits on an existing claim.
It would appear that average hours worked is at the "line in the sand".
Don't you mean "the red line"?
the game of musical chairs continues.....bernanke just sold another chair and used the proceeds in the juke box.
No Comment. a good song works. Genesis - Illegal Alien (1983) - YouTube
try explaining that to the viewers of CNBC and you'll get yanked off the air. tell them about who scored a 9 or 8 on dancing with the stars and you have ratings gold...gold baby!
I wish I could bottle up what the market is on and consume it daily. I would be nervous about the massive hangover at the end but as long as I continue to increase the dose, fk-it!
BLS manipulation, combined with new hires being paid less.
I would not be suprised if the average wage was only $20/hour.
It's the trend in the average work week. Obamacare will push that number lower over the next few years.
Do you think trial lawyers will have a hayday if a small company lays off an employee or two to get to 49 employees.....they will sue ....and put the company out of business
I routinely make 10$ less an hour then i would have made 5 years ago. I made more as a barista at 17, it's fucking ludicrous.
You know, if we killed everyone who lost a job, the unemployment rate would be 0%. I wonder if anyone in DC has thought that one through?
From ZH other article today, they don't have to do that yet... people are increasingly doing it to themselves
OK, so like always, the people are ahead of their government.
Well, at least the gun and ammo makers are doing OK. Is there a data line for those guys in the reports?
It's called "increase in GDP - New Orders."
835,000 discouraged workers according to the payroll report and 875,000 on the terrorist watch list. I'm guessing the answer to your question is yes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/03/us-usa-security-database-idUSB...
Hmmm, your eye for correlation is quite impressive. Now we know why they want all those drones flying around. It's to lower the unemployment rate.
Navin R. Johnson: "The new U.S. counter-terrorism database is here! The new U.S. counter-terrorism database is here!"
Harry Hartounian: "Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing."
Navin R. Johnson: "Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Thousands of oppressors look at this list everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now."
[A Sniper points to Navin's name in the U.S. counter-terrorism database]
Sniper: "Johnson, Navin R... sounds like a typical bastard."
hujel
A far better result would be if those with government jobs died.
Rapture them to Keynesian Heaven.
They dont want to kill their constituants.
A classic baffle with bullsh!t by the Boll@@cks of Lies and Scams
THis article is funny. If you want to see the difference between a worker for a corporation and the government, here it is.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100694955
BTFD!
I see some rats scurrying from some popular stocks today: JPM, NFLX, FB--all neg.
Even the MOMO stocks that have popped are seeing big blocks being dumped throughout the afternoon.
Obamacare is Deconstructing the Labor Market:
http://winteractionables.com/?p=1797
Exactly! Companies are hiring more workers so that each work can work less hours and there for Obamacare is not the companies' concern. The trend will continue until average weekly hours gets to about 30 hours. Those damn pesky salaried positions will keep the average from dropping below 30 although in actuality at least 60% of the work force will be working 24-28 hour work weeks.
robots and employment. millions of jobs are eliminated every year due to automation and its accelerating. Hence, to replace income/taxes from a normal job recovery we have $85 billion/month FED stimulus, $75 billion/m BOJ stimulus (this rally started when announced in Jan.), and negative rates via ECB. This will never end because it's based on creating million of full time jobs which is impossible because of automation. This type of central bank money creation ($14 tillion) has never occured in history but its likely to result in a combination of attempts to export inflation (already occuring in 3rd world) and in fighting between the mega central banks ( or in fighting between classes/races), China, India, and Russia. creating millions of part time, low wage service jobs w/o benefits is not a recovery which benefits all classes. The current stock market rally benefits the rich to a large extent and makes debt slaves of the majority perhaps the vast majority. via Ben
like all the candle makers who have gone out of business. and the horse and buggy makers too.
Candle makers and buggy whip manufacturers went out of business because they were superceded by a better technology that changed the game. Today's automation is eliminating workers without any new technology that obsoletes the current product being produced. We still need steel and aluminum and cars and computers, we just don't need anybody to build them any more. And, by the way, the companies that design and make those robots don't need neary as many people to produce them as they used to, either.
Really if you think of the great news that is upcoming this year, Merkel re-elected, Draghi starts to print to oblivion the day after, US house prices double albeit on half as many sales, the algos will have plenty to play with towards Dow 20K...As sure as I am on the eventual collapse, it appears that a coincidental collapse of a bunch of EU countries looks a bit unlikely in the next 2 years while Draghi can pull out the bazooka. Thus, with Central banks spewing money to banks who spew it into the stock market which spews into positive report prints at least half the time, to be short here is folly.
If you do not know by now that every number produced by the US BLS is a lie, you have been living in a galaxy far, far away. Every number the US BLS prodces is manipulated and massaged to suit the markets - from inflation to GDP to unemployment. Reality is so unpalatable that they have to manufacture their owm reality. And any academic who points that out will promptly lose all funding. A ponzi only works with complete repression and control of the truth.
Qualitative?
As in "less disposable income to spend in a 70% consumer spending driven economy"?
Bob Pastrami doesn't want to hear about that stuff, just give him some quantitative numbers to smoke!
It's like the guy who goes in to his doctor for his second cholesterol level check, and the reading is 329 versus 332 the last time. "Oh, looks good" says the Doctor, "Improving, so go have some fried chicken, ice cream, and do some strenuous exercise."
The economic statistic that matters is real disposable personal income per capita. Doug Short has a nice update every month (I used to make my own data series but thx Intertubez).
http://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/DPI-Monthly-Update.php
Bottom line: Zero increase in actual money to spend since the Crash in 2007. Flat line. 0.34% increase in the past 12 months, using official inflation.
I would be the first to cheer if the economy were to actually recover. But the facts simply show that is hasn't and isn't likely to. And the reason is largely because of corruption and Japanification, AKA the Big No Bond Haircut Policy Call, AKA Banksters Rules.
We are flat on our backs. Paper assets notwithstanding.
Income flat is bad enough but this inspite of exploding government and consumer debt. It's all an illusion. I understand that govt. doesn't want to "talk up" a recession and make it even worse but at what point does the pretending stop and preperation for reality start.
Well I'm a little hacked at CNBC, this morning they reported (intentionally) that the hours worked had decreased to 34.5 from 34.6. I think that if the talking heads had seen a 2/10ths reduction in hours worked a red flag would have been raised. I myself commented that I thought a 1/10th decrease was a worker equivalent to 250,000. I was a little off I guess, but large enough to get the point through, not so great numbers.
The banksters are loaded with QE money. They want a good return so they buy equities.
Bubble Bernanke keeps flooding with QE each month so they buy. It's that simple.
quality smaulity, we only focus on the shit that makes the market go up. and somehow too, there is no way that this means the fed will reduce the rate of its asset purchases. $85 billion a month for eternity!
Karl Denninger wrote a piece on this earlier today as well.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=220385
DavidC
Good work Karl.
a drop of 21,385,800 million hours
Another way to think of it.
21,385,800 divided by the increase of 165,000 jobs = 129.61 hours each.
If you deduct each new hire @ 34.6 hrs you get 129.61 - 34.6 hours = 95.01 hours loss.
Which means we lost 2.74 jobs per 1 job created.
or 453,000 lost jobs.
They hired at -$2000 per week / per worker. Looks good to me.
Tyler, you need to do the math on the monthly savings per worker, not weekly. The jobs added are for the month.
Society be gettin old.
Since Jan 2010,
The civilian population aged 16+ grew 8.3m
The 55-64 age group grew 3.5m
The 65+ age group grew 4.7m
I'll let you math geniuses figure out how many people entered the 16-54 range.
There was a fire. Nothing can be proved.
We are screwed...
Seems obvious, all of the retail stores and resteraunts that announced they would be shifting workers from full time to part time are beginning to do that now. Ergo the loss of real wages and the cut in hours. If you had two workers before now you have three with less hours in aggregate.
Suck it america you have one more crappy part time job.
"...However, the algo response to today's BLS flashing red headline - all that really matters - would have been vastly different had the BLS reported a negative number...."
i doubt it - market priapism is in play with bernankula printing feverishly around the clock....
on the other hand, this analysis is one of the better efforts i have seen on zh in a while....i would only ask that the next submission use a weighted average of pay in the new jobs.....i am sure that ( 150,000 x 7.25 ) + (10,000 x 25) + (4000 x 42 ) + (999 x 65) +( 1 x 375) is a much smaller number in payroll than imagined....
and besides, who believes that stupidass number put out by the bls anyway?
As was poionted out to me, the month over month average hours worked was a very big amount and will hamper income going forward. The question is: who is hring all these 20-24 year olds and how many will be making minimum wage or close to it?