• Nationally, policies continue to be a disaster for Mfg Jobs, IT Jobs, and Advanced Technology Products "Trade"
• Nationally, job growth is negative. Jobs haven't kept up with population growth ... Gap: This month 5.1 million jobs compared to last month's 4.6 million.
• Colorado has been a worse disaster; jobs haven't anywhere near kept up with population growth ... Gap: 170 thousand jobs compared to 164 thousand last month.
• Colorado Springs has been an even worse disaster than the nation and the state, losing 39.3% of manufacturing jobs and 49.0% of IT jobs (last month those were 39.3% & 48.3%, respectively ... at least mfg job loss was no worse).

It's really difficult to understand how offshoring good-paying manufacturing and IT jobs are good for the US economy. That's because it's not. See  The Trade Deficit and the Fallacy of Composition for why it's not.

Data Sources:

U.S. Employment & Unmemployment found at historical data for labor force based on the household survey

• Table A-1. Employment status of the civilian population by sex and age. Includes those considered "Not in labor force, Persons who currently want a job"
• Table A-12. Alternative measures of labor underutilization, U-1 through U-6

U.S. Population data at U.S. Census, Estimates

State and Area Employment, Hours, and Earnings Find Colorado and Colorado Springs data here for Total Nonfarm, Manufacturing and Information Technology, and other states, regions, & categories

Colorado Population by Region 2000 - 2006

U.S. International Trade In Goods and Services, Historical Series

U.S. Trade in Goods (Imports, Exports and Balance) by Country find China, Mexico here.

Advanced Technology Products at FT900: U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, Exhibit 16

Summary of Job Loss data: National, Colorado, Colorado Springs since their peaks

Job Loss Summary

Comparison of Percentage of Manufacturing Jobs Lost

Mfg Job Loss Comparison by Region

Comparison of Percentage of IT Jobs Lost

IT Job Loss Comparison by Region

Woe is Colorado Springs.

US Job Growth has not kept up with Population Growth; the gap is over 5 million jobs (over 4.6 million last month). And there are now 601,000 fewer jobs than in Nov 07 (that was  316,000 fewer last month). About 7.6 million of these jobs are held by persons who have another job; that's 5.2% of employment (see the "multiple jobholders" graph at the bottom of Employment & Unemployment).

US Job Growth Negative

National Manufacturing Job Trend ... major resumption of downward trend since mid-06. China's less efficient use of oil increases gas prices in the US ... we pay for those low prices at the pump. Aside for the loss of jobs and higher gas prices, it's not good for the environment.

National Mfg Jobs Trend

National IT Job Trend. Bummer, people who lost their manufacturing jobs retrained for these jobs. But somehow the US needs 65,000 H-1B visas to import workers because there's a shortage?

National IT Jobs Trend

Colorado Manufacturing Job Trend ... going downhill

Colorado Mfg Jobs Trend

Colorado IT Job Trend

Colorado IT Jobs Trend

Colorado Springs Manufacturing Job Trend ... down, but at least flat since last month

Colorado Springs Mfg Jobs Trend

Colorado Springs IT Job Trend ... devastation continues

Colorado Springs IT Jobs Trend

Colorado Non-Farm Jobs Trend. Colorado would need another 170 thousand jobs to keep up with population growth (up from 164 thousand last month).

Note: There's been a change in the statistics sometime since 9/07 ... somehow there were another 10,700 more jobs in 9/07 than previously thought ... wouldn't easily know that without keeping the data from then.

Colorado Non-Farm Jobs Trend

Advanced Technology Products "Trade" Trend. From a $38.4B surplus in 1991 to a $53.5B deficit in 2007 ... an average decline of $5.7B/year.

So the US is going to let others (e.g., China) do the low-tech manufacturing and the US is going to retain high-tech manufacturing? Think again. Wonder why students aren't attracted to high-tech education? It's not that easy and the jobs are going away.

Advanced Technology Products "Trade" Balance Trend - Annual

Here's the monthly ATP trade balance trend since 2006 with a linear least-square fit showing the overall downward trend.

Advanced Technology Products "Trade" Balance Trend - Monthly

US Unemployment Rate - Official vs. Actual

While there's concern that the Official Unemployment Rate (U3) rose from 4.8% in Feb to 5.1% in March, 5.0% in Apr, and now 5.5% in May, there should be even more concern. What I call the "Real Unemployment Rate" is 13.8%. Ever wonder why the official poverty rate in America is between 12% and 13%? It's no coincidence.

My "Real Unemployment Rate" number includes those extra who are classified as "Not in labor force, but Persons who currently want a job" to the government's U6 statistic. It also adds those needed to keep up with population growth ... see the gap at the 4th figure above ... that's 5 million persons.

For explanations of these numbers see Unemployment: Official, Effective, Real. For the impact see There's no 'free market' for Labor.

Different Measures of the Unemployment Rate

US Unemployment Level - Official vs. Actual

There are more like 23.5 million persons unemployed (last month it was 22.8 million) than the official U3 number of 8.487 million (last month it was 7.626 million ... a revised U3# from the 7.8 million reported last month). This does not count the underemployed. In 2006 there were 36.5 million people in poverty; no wonder.

Different Measures of the Unemployment Level

Concerned yet?