LABOR FORCE IMPLOSION …
The U.S. economy produced a dismal 38,000 jobs in May, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That’s the worst print since September 2010. Making matters worse, April’s less-than-robust numbers were also downwardly-revised – from 160,000 to 123,000. And March’s 208,000-job print was slashed to 186,000.
Analysts had expected a gain of 160,000 jobs in May.
“There is no way to spin this number as anything but atrocious,” our friends at Zero Hedge noted.
Indeed. For those of you visually inclined …
(Click to enlarge)
(Chart via Zero Hedge)
It gets worse, too. There was yet another massive exodus of workers from the labor pool – 664,000, to be precise. That abysmal print sent the labor participation rate plunging to 62.6 percent – with the total number of working age Americans not participating in the labor force rising to a record 94.7 million.
Over the last two months, more than 1.1 million working age Americans have left the labor force – and the worst could be yet to come as multiple macroeconomic warning signs continue to blare bright red.