The BLS noted that people were counted as “employed” if they were paid by their employer for any part of the pay period through the 12th, “even if they were not actually at their jobs.”
Reality is the weekly state jobs report showed a huge increase in weekly claims for the period from May 15 to the end of the month. This is based on the surveys of employers (“establishment surveys”), released as part of the jobs report this morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reference period on the survey extended through May 12th. Given the issues with the pandemic, the BLS noted that people were counted as “employed” if they were paid by their employer for any part of the pay period through the 12th, “even if they were not actually at their jobs.”
The total number of jobs rose by 2.5 million in May from April, to 132.9 million jobs, following the April collapse of 20.7 million jobs and the March plunge of 1.4 million jobs. Over the past three months – the period spanning the collapse of the US labor market – employers reported shedding 19.6 million jobs. In May, the gain was a composite of diverging trends – job gains in some parts of the private sector and further job losses in other parts of the private sector and steep job losses in government The private sector added 3.1 million jobs, which whittled down total job losses since March to 18.2 million. Over half of those private-sector job gains occurred at restaurants, bars, and retailers (1.74 million combined) Governments at all levels shed 585,000 jobs in May, which increased total government job losses over the past three months to 1.57 million. In May, local governments shed 487,000 jobs; state governments shed 84,000 jobs; and the federal government shed 14,000 jobs. Hotels, air transportation, management, oil-and-gas extraction, and computer systems design shed a combined 252,900 jobs. Nick Note: If we subtract the number of people who lost their jobs after the arbitrary count off date of May 12 and subtract those people who subsequently lost their jobs (and were not counted) the REAL unemployment rate is NOT 13.3% (a huge number as published) But over 18% and we are on rerecord predicting a 20% unemployment rate. And we predict 25% of all businesses closing permanently after they milk the SBA for all they can. Even if you take their numbers at face value a unemployment rate droppiig form 18% to 13.3 is nothing to celebrate.