Boomers still working

3 April 2009 By Martin Hutchinson

Job losses now total 5.1m and the increase in unemployment is now topped by only one postwar recession. Only the over55s are adding jobs, forced to work by the hit to their savings. Real wages are still rising, but they are likely to drop, probably through resurgent inflation.

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US nonfarm payroll employment declined by 663,000 in March and the unemployment rate rose from 8.1% to 8.5%. Since the recession began in December 2007, 5.1m jobs have been lost, with 3.3m of the decrease in the last 5 months.

Average earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.2%; average hourly earnings have risen by 3.4% since march 2008 and average weekly earnings by 1.5%.

Since March 2008, employment has declined from 145.1m to 139.8m, with jobs being lost in all categories of workers except those over 55, where employment has increased from 26.7m to 27.0m.

The unemployment rate peaked at 7.8% in June 1992, at 10.8% in November 1982, at 9.0% in May 1975, at 7.5% in July 1958 and at 7.9% in October 1949. Unemployment peaked at 25% in 1932 and at 19% in 1938. The rise in unemployment from the trough in March 2007 is 4.1 percentage points; from the trough in May 1979 to the peak in November 1982 unemployment rose 5.2 points.

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