Darrell Maclean of Suburban SMI Shocked By Zero Growth of The Job Market.

Sept. 6, 2011 - PRLog -- There were zero jobs created in August 2011, which is not a good sign for his business and the industrial environmental sector as a whole.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday that non-farm payroll jobs in August were unchanged, in other words zero growth, and the unemployment rate was flat at 9.1%. They went on to say that employment in most major industries changed little over the month. One ray of sunshine was the healthcare market, which added some jobs but the information sector declined. Government jobs also continued to trend down. Visit http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf  for details.

According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, we still have about 14 million people unemployed, of a labor force equal to approximately 156 million. But the scary statistic is that the long term unemployed now stands at 6 million (about 45% of the unemployed). Another scary statistics is the so-called “involuntary part-time workers” grew from 8.4 million to 8.8 million. These are the people who cannot find full time work or their hours have been cut.

The Economist magazine this week correctly pointed out that August was a terrible month for the USA:
•   Congress took America to the brink of default.
•   Standard & Poor’s cut the USA debt rating.
•   Europe’s debt crisis deepened.
•   The stock market plunged.
Visit http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/09/ameri...  for details.

So it is not surprising that U.S. businesses did not feel inclined to add jobs in August. Predictably, the stock market also reacted negatively to this news on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Index stridently marching back towards 11,000.

Parallel to this depressing news was the consumer confidence index, which plummeted in August to 44.5, down from 59.2 in July, along with the CEO confidence index which declined by 12 points; a situation somewhat predicted by this blog last month. See http://www.conference-board.org/data/consumerconfidence.cfm for details.

There is no doubt that the U.S. employment market is really in the doldrums as is the overall economy. With the impact of the East Coast Hurricane Irene last week, gas prices are on their way up again. We are edging dangerously close to another recession, or as some like to say a double dip recession. Did we ever come out of the first recession? The economists argue, yes, using their strict criteria for defining a recession, but the man on the street doesn’t see it that way. It is more basic than that – do I have a job, can I afford to pay the bills this month, and what do I do if someone in the family falls ill?

These data do not bode well for the industrial environmental remediation and asbestos abatement businesses. I am concerned this could push us further towards another recession, which is not good news for any business.

Southern Middlesex Industries is an Environmental Remediation company and a tracker of suburban economic indicators with an outstanding reputation throughout New England.  SMI has over 25 years experience and expertise in industrial and suburban contaminant removal and safe disposal, including asbestos, lead, mercury, pcb’s, refrigerants, mold and has expertise in building demolition, selective interior demolition and general contracting services.

If you have questions, want to make a comment, or need help, click on this link (http://smipressoffice.wordpress.com/contact-us-smi-darrel... )

For More Information: Visit the SMI website at http://www.southernmiddlesex.com or the SMI Blog at http://smipressoffice.wordpress.com/

Copyright © 2011 Southern Middlesex Industries, Inc. (SMI)

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Southern Middlesex Industries, Inc., (SMI) is an Environmental Remediation company with over 25 years experience and expertise in industrial in the safe removal and disposal of asbestos, lead, mercury, mold, pcbs and other environmental contaminants. We also occasionally report on the economy and the latest economic indicators.