What happened to normal media coverage of July’s monthly BLS figures? Why wasn’t critical BLS data publicized?

Every month, like clockwork, the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the prior month’s jobs data on the first Friday of the month. Amazingly, jobs data didn't appear on any front pages today or as a lead story for broadcast media, and as of Friday afternoon, search engines showed limited reporting of the BLS’ survey-based predictive results.

For those who missed the headline figure, the BLS Seasonally Adjusted estimate of who’s employed showed a disappointing 162,000 jobs added to the economy in July, while May and June had 26,000 jobs removed from earlier months’ estimates. The more accurate Not Seasonally Adjusted count showed a loss of 1,113,000 employed Americans on Establishment Data Table B1 for Total Non-Farm Employment. Since the BLS July SA count comes up short of what’s needed on a monthly basis for our own young adults who’ve completed schooling and/or training programs, together with immigrants and migrant newcomers seeking employment, among the best questions is how can this economy reemploy significant numbers of the 104 million who will have filed claims after job losses during Obama's Presidency through Saturday, August 3rd, 2013.

Observations from the July Employment Situation release will follow with summary jobs data.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 162,000 in July, with gains in retail trade, food services and drinking places, financial activities, and wholesale trade. Over the prior 12 months, nonfarm employment growth averaged 189,000 per month.

Retail trade added 47,000 jobs in July and has added 352,000 over the past 12 months. In July, job growth occurred in general merchandise stores (+9,000), motor vehicle and parts dealers (+6,000), building material and garden supply stores (+6,000), and health and personal care stores (+5,000).

Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places increased by 38,000 in July and by 381,000 over the year.

Employment in health care was essentially unchanged over the month. Thus far in 2013, health care has added an average of 16,000 jobs per month, compared with an average monthly increase of 27,000 in 2012.

In July, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls edged down by 2 cents to $23.98, following a 10-cent increase in June. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees remained unchanged at $20.14 during July.

More about who’s employed and who’s left out of the economy appears in the BLS report.

Under the Household Data, Table A-7, Foreign born workers in the U.S. economy show they’re employed at the highest rate of any group in the workforce at 79.6%, and their unemployment rate at 5.7% dwarfs all groups apart from college graduates, advanced degreed and professional workers combined. Since July 2012, foreign born males increased by 214,000 in the workforce, while foreign born females gained 265,000 jobs. Of course, those numbers don’t account for millions of undocumented workers paid under the table and off the books.

Our own native born workers showed an increase of 666,000 jobs for American males, while native born females lost 157,000 jobs overall during the twelve-month period. In direct comparison, the foreign born workers gained 479,000 jobs, while American born workers who gained 509,000 jobs. Using civilian non-institutional population counts from the BLS, that shows foreign born workers taking jobs at nearly six times the rate of our own increasingly college educated workforce. Table A-4 shows our own college graduates with bachelor’s, master’s, professional and doctoral degrees lagging behind the lofty foreign born workers’ participation rates by more than 4.5%. And during July 2013 alone, workers with a bachelor’s degree and higher lost 255,000 jobs on SA estimates, while the NSA counts showed a painful 384,000 jobs lost for our best educated workers.

Household Data Table A-3 shows Hispanic or Latino workers gaining 124,000 jobs on NSA counts, while SA estimates claim a 74,000 increase. Since July 2012, the Hispanic employment growth shows a twelve-month increase of 725,000 jobs overall. Lastly, at 67.2%, the Hispanic/Latino workforce participation rate scores nearly 4% higher than the rest of the nation’s cumulative participation rate numbers. Again, few, if any, undocumented workers who dominate laboring jobs in sanctuary cities across the Southwest are included in the counts.

While the loss of 1,113,000 jobs on NSA counts for July exceeds the worst individual month since the depths of the recession, the 162,000 SA suggested increase comes up marginally short of employing our come-of-age ready new native born workers together with immigrants legal and otherwise combined. The Department of Labor’s ETA counts post the only actual comprehensive nationwide counts of who’s filed claims after job losses, as well as real employers’ payroll record counts on a quarterly basis.