Once again, in its sheer panic to tout the quantity, or lack thereof, in the case of the December jobs number, the frenzied media and pundits completely ignored the quality of the jobs gained in the last month of December. Or lack thereof. Because as the simple breakdown below shows, of the 74K jobs gained in December, 55%, or 40K were the worst of the lot when it comes to wages or benefits: temporary jobs.
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As for the other job additions? Well, between Temp Help, and the bottom of the barrel paying Retail and Wholesale Trade jobs, the total additions were 111K. Which means all the other, better-paying, job groups saw... a drop of 35K.
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In other words, the "recovery" may be lacking in numbers, but at least it is completely lacking in quality. And oh yes: remember - when it is snowing outside, employers only hire temp workers, hence it's the weather's fault.