Downer! AKA the June Jobs Report....

Summer is here and the time is right to slash and burn jobs.

At least that's the conclusion we can reach when we see that almost 500,000 people lost their jobs in June, making the jobless rate - 9.5 percent - the highest its been since Reagan was in office. That was back in 1983, when the Rust Belt cleared out all those jobs in steel and other manufacturing industries.

Back in the early 1980s, Reagan promised he would bring "morning in America!" And we got a nasty recession and unemployment and states across the country dumped the mentally ill from asylums they could no longer afford to keep open.

Reagan also promised the benefits of "the trickle down" theory - all those tax cuts for the rich would enhance the lives of everyone else.

That "trickle down" boat seems to have sailed out to sea with just the very rich on board. Since Reagan, with rising prices and stagnant salaries, the middle class seems to be sinking, not rising, as promised, with the tide.

And these days, the middle class keeps losing their jobs. In fact, more people lost jobs in June than in May. The downward trend in job loss that made the experts so very happy last month took a sharp turn up again.

The "recovery" seems limited to Goldman Sachs, actually, which is having a hell of a great year.

No bailout for the middle class, however. The middle class is never "too big to fail."

In two days, we celebrate our nation's birth. 14.7 million people are not celebrating an extra day off of work this weekend - because they're out of a job anyway. That's a number that has doubled since the recession began in 2007.

Here's the info out of the BLS:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JUNE 2009

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in June (-467,000),
and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.5 percent, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.
Job losses were widespread across the major industry sectors, with
large declines occurring in manufacturing, professional and business
services, and construction.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The number of unemployed persons (14.7 million) and the unemployment
rate (9.5 percent) were little changed in June. Since the start of the
recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has increas-
ed by 7.2 million, and the unemployment rate has risen by 4.6 percentage
points. (See table A-1.)

In June, unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men
(10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent),
whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per-
cent)--showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was
8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who com-
pleted temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after
increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first 5 months
of this year. (See table A-8.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million. In June, 3
in 10 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more. (See
table A-9.)

- 2 -


Table A. Major indicators of labor market activity, seasonally adjusted
(Numbers in thousands)
_______________________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Quarterly | |
| averages | Monthly data | May -
Category |_________________|__________________________| June
| | | | | | change
| I | II | Apr. | May | June |
| 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 | 2009 |
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
HOUSEHOLD DATA | Labor force status
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Civilian labor force ....| 153,993| 154,912| 154,731| 155,081| 154,926| -155
Employment ............| 141,578| 140,591| 141,007| 140,570| 140,196| -374
Unemployment ..........| 12,415| 14,321| 13,724| 14,511| 14,729| 218
Not in labor force ......| 80,920| 80,547| 80,541| 80,371| 80,729| 358
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Unemployment rates
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
All workers .............| 8.1| 9.2| 8.9| 9.4| 9.5| 0.1
Adult men .............| 8.2| 9.7| 9.4| 9.8| 10.0| .2
Adult women ...........| 6.7| 7.4| 7.1| 7.5| 7.6| .1
Teenagers .............| 21.3| 22.7| 21.5| 22.7| 24.0| 1.3
White .................| 7.4| 8.4| 8.0| 8.6| 8.7| .1
Black or African | | | | | |
American ............| 13.1| 14.9| 15.0| 14.9| 14.7| -.2
Hispanic or Latino | | | | | |
ethnicity ...........| 10.7| 12.0| 11.3| 12.7| 12.2| -.5
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
ESTABLISHMENT DATA | Employment
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Nonfarm employment.......| 133,662|p132,111| 132,481|p132,159|p131,692| p-467
Goods-producing (1)....| 19,826| p19,035| 19,253| p19,038| p18,815| p-223
Construction ........| 6,590| p6,309| 6,367| p6,319| p6,240| p-79
Manufacturing .......| 12,468| p11,997| 12,146| p11,990| p11,854| p-136
Service-providing (1)..| 113,835|p113,075| 113,228|p113,121|p112,877| p-244
Retail trade (2)...| 14,933| p14,821| 14,840| p14,822| p14,801| p-21
Professional and | | | | | |
business services .| 17,048| p16,712| 16,783| p16,735| p16,617| p-118
Education and health | | | | | |
services ..........| 19,138| p19,218| 19,175| p19,222| p19,256| p34
Leisure and | | | | | |
hospitality .......| 13,235| p13,174| 13,168| p13,186| p13,168| p-18
Government ..........| 22,543| p22,592| 22,616| p22,606| p22,554| p-52
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Hours of work (3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 33.2| p33.1| 33.1| p33.1| p33.0| p-0.1
Manufacturing .........| 39.6| p39.5| 39.6| p39.4| p39.5| p.1
Overtime ............| 2.7| p2.8| 2.7| p2.8| p2.8| p.0
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Indexes of aggregate weekly hours (2002=100)(3)
|_____________________________________________________
| | | | | |
Total private ...........| 101.7| p99.6| 100.1| p99.8| p99.0| p-0.8
|________|________|________|________|________|________
|
| Earnings (3)
|_____________________________________________________
Average hourly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| $18.46| p$18.52| $18.50| p$18.53| p$18.53| p$0.00
Average weekly earnings, | | | | | |
total private .........| 613.60| p612.39| 612.35| p613.34| p611.49| p-1.85
_________________________|________|________|________|________|________|________

1 Includes other industries, not shown separately.
2 Quarterly averages and the over-the-month change are calculated using
unrounded data.
3 Data relate to private production and nonsupervisory workers.
p = preliminary.

- 3 -

Total Employment and the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

The civilian labor force participation rate was little changed in
June at 65.7 percent. The employment-population ratio, at 59.5 per-
cent, continued to trend down over the month. The employment-popula-
tion ratio has declined by 3.2 percentage points since the start of
the recession in December 2007. (See table A-1.)

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons
(sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little
changed in June at 9.0 million. Since the start of the recession, the
number of such workers has increased by 4.4 million. (See table A-5.)

Persons Not in the Labor Force (Household Survey Data)

About 2.2 million persons (not seasonally adjusted) were marginally
attached to the labor force in June, 618,000 more than a year earlier.
These individuals wanted and were available for work and had looked
for a job sometime in the past 12 months. They were not counted as
unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks
preceding the survey. Among the marginally attached, there were
793,000 discouraged workers in June, up by 373,000 from a year
earlier. Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for
work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The other
1.4 million persons marginally attached to the labor force in June
had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for
reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities. (See
table A-13.)

Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data)

Total nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in June
(-467,000). Job losses from April to June averaged 436,000 per month,
compared with losses averaging 670,000 per month from November to
March. Since the recession began in December 2007, payroll employment
has fallen by 6.5 million. In June, job losses continued to be wide-
spread across major industry sectors. (See table B-1.)

Employment in manufacturing fell by 136,000 over the month and has
declined by 1.9 million during the recession. Within the durable
goods industry, motor vehicles and parts (-27,000), fabricated metal
products (-18,000), computer and electronic products (-16,000), and
machinery (-14,000) continued to lose jobs in June. Since the reces-
sion began, employment in motor vehicles and parts has declined by
335,000, or about one-third.

In June, employment in construction fell by 79,000, with losses
spread throughout the industry. Since the start of the recession,
construction employment has fallen by 1.3 million. Mining employ-
ment fell by 8,000 in June, about in line with the average monthly
decline since its recent peak in October 2008.

Employment in the professional and business services industry
declined by 118,000 in June. This industry has shed 1.5 million jobs
since an employment peak in December 2007. Within this sector, employ-
ment in temporary help services fell by 38,000 in June; this industry
has lost 848,000 jobs since the start of the recession.

- 4 -

Retail trade employment edged down in June (-21,000); job losses in
retail trade have moderated in the past 3 months. Over the month, job
losses continued in automobile dealerships (-9,000). Employment con-
tinued to fall in wholesale trade (-16,000).

In June, financial activities employment continued to decline
(-27,000). Since the start of the recession, this industry has lost
489,000 jobs. In June, employment declined in credit intermediation
and related activities (-10,000) and in securities, commodity contracts,
and investments (-6,000).

The information industry lost 21,000 jobs over the month and
187,000 since the start of the recession. Publishing accounted for
about half of the employment decline in the information industry
during the recession.

Health care employment increased by 21,000 in June. Job gains in
health care have averaged 21,000 per month thus far in 2009, down from
an average of 30,000 per month during 2008. Employment in federal
government fell by 49,000 in June, largely due to the layoff of work-
ers temporarily hired to prepare for Census 2010.

The change in total nonfarm employment for April was revised from
-504,000 to -519,000, and the change for May was revised from -345,000
to -322,000.

Weekly Hours (Establishment Survey Data)

In June, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.1 hour to 33.0 hours--the
lowest level on record for the series, which began in 1964. The manu-
facturing workweek rose by 0.1 hour to 39.5 hours, and factory overtime
was unchanged at 2.8 hours. (See table B-2.)

The index of aggregate weekly hours of production and nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 0.8 percent in June. The
manufacturing index declined by 1.2 percent over the month. (See
table B-5.)

Hourly and Weekly Earnings (Establishment Survey Data)

In June, average hourly earnings of production and nonsupervisory
workers on private nonfarm payrolls were unchanged at $18.53. Over
the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 2.7 per-
cent, while weekly earnings have risen by only 0.9 percent, reflecting
a decline in the average workweek. (See table B-3.)


______________________________


The Employment Situation for July 2009 is scheduled to be released
on Friday, August 7, at 8:30 A.M. (EDT).