Changes in employment

The unemployment report for September was released on October 2, and what was notable in this one was the large number of people who withdrew from the labor force. Unemployment rose by 214,000, but the number of people in the labor force shrank by 571,000, which means that the number of people working shrank by 785,000. Graphs which show changes in the number of unemployed suggest that we are getting close to some good news. I wondered what the graph would look like if instead we looked at changes in the number of employed. Below is the graph.

The graph begins with the Jan-Feb 2006 change and ends with the Aug-Sept 2009 change. The data were found at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/surveymost?bls. The series chosen was the series Civilian Employment (Seasonally Adjusted) - LNS12000000. In January of each year, data are affected by changes in population controls, so the Dec-Jan changes may be erratic.

This graph seems much less encouraging concerning the end of the recession than graphs showing changes in unemployment. Below are the month-to-month changes in employment used to construct the graph.


Jan-Feb 2006 . . . 295
Feb-Mar 2006 . . . 289
Mar-Apr 2006 . . . 50
Apr-May 2006 . . . 329
May-Jun 2006 . . . 266
Jun-Jul 2006 . . . -111
Jul-Aug 2006 . . . 397
Aug-Sep 2006 . . . 162
Sep-Oct 2006 . . . 483
Oct-Nov 2006 . . . 298
Nov-Dec 2006 . . . 402
Dec-Jan 2006/7 . . . -6
Jan-Feb 2007 . . . 9
Feb-Mar 2007 . . . 275
Mar-Apr 2007 . . . -620
Apr-May 2007 . . . 268
May-Jun 2007 . . . 142
Jun-Jul 2007 . . . -85
Jul-Aug 2007 . . . -240
Aug-Sep 2007 . . . 471
Sep-Oct 2007 . . . -336
Oct-Nov 2007 . . . 798
Nov-Dec 2007 . . . -371
Dec-Jan 2007/8 . . . 23
Jan-Feb 2008 . . . -242
Feb-Mar 2008 . . . -52
Mar-Apr 2008 . . . 234
Apr-May 2008 . . . -283
May-Jun 2008 . . . -236
Jun-Jul 2008 . . . -142
Jul-Aug 2008 . . . -323
Aug-Sep 2008 . . . -244
Sep-Oct 2008 . . . -372
Oct-Nov 2008 . . . -513
Nov-Dec 2008 . . . -806
Dec-Jan 2008/9 . . . -1239
Jan-Feb 2009 . . . -351
Feb-Mar 2009 . . . -861
Mar-Apr 2009 . . . 120
Apr-May 2009 . . . -437
May-Jun 2009 . . . -374
Jun-Jul 2009 . . . -155
Jul-Aug 2009 . . . -392
Aug-Sep 2009 . . . -785


Update: Below is a graph showing total employment from January 2006 until September 2009.
In November of 2007 the number employed was 146,665,000. In September, 2009 the number employed was 138,864,000. Employment has dropped by 7,801,000 in that time. A couple of interesting sub-periods: since November 2008 employment has dropped by 5,280,000 and since January 2009 it has dropped by 3,235,000.

Drop in employment = jobs lost.

Update here.