Contrary to Massa Media, Black Unemployment is Soaring. According to the BLS Survey, Job Creation Stands at Negative 723,000 Since October

From [HERE] The Bureau of Labor Statistics released the results of its twin labor market surveys for November. From the establishment survey, non-farm payroll job creation printed at (salted, peppered, and heavily seasoned) growth of 227,000, while revising the months of September and October up a combined 56,000. That's a net creation of 283,000 jobs, if one can trust the numbers, which is asking a lot.

Why the skepticism? Aside from the poor past performance of this series, one only has to go as far as the BLS household survey to find stark contrast in just how many jobs were created in November. This is astonishing. For November, the household survey shows a decrease of 355,000 employed people on top of an October decrease of 368,000. In other words, over the past two months, according to the BLS survey that the financial media loves to ignore, job creation stands at negative 723,000. Things that make you go hmmm? One more thing on this topic. It looks like there were job losses across both full and part time labor forces, so a mass reduction of hours does not seem to be part of this story.

Digging into that household survey, we see a decrease in the civilian labor force of 193,000 individuals and an increase of 161,000 officially unemployed persons. This takes the participation rate down to 62.5% from 62.6% and the employment to population ratio to 59.8% from 60%. Two months ago, this metric stood at 60.2%. Finally, the official unemployment rate that does not count those folks who simply dropped out of the labor force, increased to 4.2% from 4.1%, while the underemployment rate increased to 7.8% from 7.7%.

In a troubling sign that one prominent economist called a “serious cause for concern,” the Black unemployment rate in November surged to its highest level in eight months.

Additionally, according to the establishment survey, the average full-time workweek improved to a historically low 34.3 hours from a ghastly 34.2 hours in October. Average Hourly Earnings remained precisely on pace with October at year over year growth of 4%.