National Data | September Jobs: American Worker Displacement At Record High

By Edwin S. Rubenstein

10/08/2010

[See also September Jobs Report Reveals America’s Emerging Third World Economy By Paul Craig Roberts]

The economy lost 95,000 more jobs in September, as state and local governments downsized at a faster rate than the private sector expanded. The drop was much larger than the 8,000 decline expected by economists and far outstripped the 57,000 lost in August.

As is so often the case the "other" employment survey, of households rather than companies, paints a very different picture. That survey reported 141,000 positions added in September on the heels of a 290,000 job pop in August.

People who work for small businesses, "off the books", or who are self employed will show up in the Household Survey. That includes many illegal aliens.

V-DARE.COM’s American Worker Displacement Index (VDAWDI) rose to a record 127.0 in September as Hispanics gained jobs at nearly six times the rate of Non-Hispanics:

A few weeks ago Washington proclaimed that the Great Recession ended in June 2009. That call is based on GDP growth — which, although quite anemic, has been positive since then. For most of us ordinary Americans, however, GDP is an abstraction; employment is where it’s at.

Since the onset of economic "recovery" in June 2009 total employment has declined. Some lucky folks have bucked the trend:

Economic recovery may indeed be a reality for Hispanics, who are employed in greater numbers today than in June 2009. But for non-Hispanics, economic recovery remains a rumor.

Of course, Hispanic employment is a proxy for our primary interest: the immigrant workforce and its role in displacement of native-born workers in the labor market.

When we developed VDAWDI, the federal government did not publish monthly data on immigrant employment. But in recent months the jobs report has begun to present data on foreign- and native-born workers, their working-age populations, employment, unemployment rates, etc.

Employment Status by Nativity,

Sept. 2009-Sept. 2010

(numbers in 1000s; not seasonally adjusted)

Sep-09

Sep-10

Change

% Change

Foreign born, 16 years and older

Civilian population

35,527

36,097

570

1.6%

Civilian labor force

24,189

24,488

299

1.2%

Employed

21,864

22,226

362

1.7%

Unemployed

2,325

2,262

-63

-2.7%

Employees/population (%)

61.5

61.6

0.1

0.2%

Unemployment rate (%)

9.6

9.2

-0.4

-4.2%

Native born, 16 years and older

Civilian population

200,796

202,225

1,429

0.7%

Civilian labor force

129,428

129,366

-62

0.0%

Employed

117,215

117,488

273

0.2%

Unemployed

12,213

11,878

-335

-2.7%

Employees/population (%)

58.4

58.1

-0.3

-0.5%

Unemployment rate (%)

9.4

9.2

-0.2

-2.1%

Source: BLS, "The Employment Situation — August 2010,"October 8, 2010. Table A-7. PDF

Over the past 12 months:

Edwin S. Rubenstein is President of ESR Research Economic Consultants in Indianapolis.

< Previous

Next >


This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.