Our weight goes up and down and we jump on the scale to see the latest changes. Even if we haven't gained much weight in the last year, it is of interest to know if we gained at all. So it is with the economy and its changes.
That's what today's blog post is about. December's employment might not have grown a lot. In fact, employment in the last 10 years might not have grown as much as in the previous 10 years. But has it grown at all? And if so, by how much?
I used my friend Google to travel to the website of the Bureau of Labor Statistics to look at employment in the USA. This post and the below table might not satisfy some of you because it represents a start in thinking about employment in the USA over the past 11 years. It's a start because many of you are going to look at this and then ask a lot of questions about what is missing in the chart. That's fine. We can handle those as we move forward.
The table contains the December values of three employment series -- all workers, manufacturing workers, and government workers -- for all the years from 2009 through 2019. They are presented in millions of workers.
The USA in 2009 had 130 million employed workers. Of those, around 11 million were in manufacturing and another 22 million worked for governments (federal, state, and local). The rest were found in the many various non-manufacturing sectors.
Each December found total employment rising. The fact that we have not had a recession in all those years since 2009 implies that in none of those years did employment decrease. It has been a decade of steady increase.
With respect to ALL employment, employment went from 130 million in 2009 to 152 million in December of 2019. That 23-million worker increase amounted to a 17.4% increase. The 17.4% is not a record but you have to admit that 23 million jobs is not a small number. There are only two states that have a population of as much as 23 million -- California and Texas. 23 million is about the size of New York plus Connecticut.
It might have taken 10 years but the US employment increase was large enough to give jobs to nearly all the people in New York and Connecticut. Or you could say it was enough to have employed everyone in the third largest USA state.
A quick look around the world suggests that the USA was not alone in the slowdown of employment -- but more relevant for today is that in most cases of most advanced nations -- employment grew about half as fast as it did in the USA. (I am purposely not citing numbers for this comparison because it is not possible right now to find employment data for relevant countries that match exactly those I am quoting for the USA. To base my international comparison, I used the B tables from the IMF World Economic Outlook Report published in October of 2019.)
Most people wring their hands and say prayers for USA manufacturing employment, but the table shows an increase of about 2 million jobs or a 12 percent increase over those years. OK, that might not have set any records but it is an increase.
The government sector was not so successful. Employment did not increase by even 1 million people and the increase was less than 1 percent.
I can hear some of you wondering out loud. What about skilled versus less skilled? What about the average wage? What about employment of low-wage workers? What about those Sea Hawks?
Anyway, I said this was just a start. The fact that employment increased by more than one New York is not too bad. If it is not good enough for you, then maybe we should ask our friendly idiots in DC to do something about that.
Table. December Employment USA 2009 to 2019 (in millions of workers)
| Year | All | MFG | Govt |
| 2009 | 130 | 11 | 22 |
| 2010 | 131 | 12 | 22 |
| 2011 | 133 | 12 | 22 |
| 2012 | 135 | 12 | 22 |
| 2013 | 137 | 12 | 22 |
| 2014 | 140 | 12 | 22 |
| 2015 | 143 | 12 | 22 |
| 2016 | 145 | 12 | 22 |
| 2017 | 148 | 13 | 22 |
| 2018 | 150 | 13 | 22 |
| 2019 | 152 | 13 | 23 |
| Chg 2009 to 2019* | 23 | 1 | 0 |
| % Chg 2009 to 2019 | 17.4 | 12.0 | 0.7 |
*The change calculations reflect the actual differences before rounding off.
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