U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Report for March 2010 is flawed.

March 2010: the facts; 17.3 million Americans remain out of work

In March The Government reports that Nonfarm payroll employment increase by 162,000, (and we will discuss this below), yet the number of unemployed persons was little changed at 15.0 million, while the unemployment rate remained constant at 9.7 percent.

However there are another 2.3 Million Americans that are not counted as they are classified as “marginally attached to the labor force” bringing the real unemployment total to 17.3 million, and over 10%.

Marginally attached means: These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Temporary help services and health care did add jobs over the month. Employment in federal government also rose, reflecting the hiring of temporary workers for Census 2010, some 48,000. Employment however declined in the financial and the information sector.

The picture is not as colossal as one would like to see, when we consider that 40,000 jobs that were added were part time, and another 48,000 were also part time government jobs, and two sectors shed a total of 33,000 jobs. If there was a gain it was a very small gain of only 41,000, but even that is disputed by a more reliable report from the ADP Employer Services report which is unbiased, gives a different picture, it showed today that employers actually shed another 23,000 jobs in March, who do you believe?

The Labor department states: Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (10.0 percent), adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (26.1 percent), whites (8.8 per-cent), blacks (16.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.6 percent) showed little or no change in March. The jobless rate for Asians was 7.5 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) increased by 414,000 over the month to 6.5 million. In March, 44.1 percent of unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.

The civilian labor force participation rate (64.9 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.6 percent) continued to edge up in March.

The number of persons working part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased to 9.1 million in March. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

About 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in March, compared with 2.1 million a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.)These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.0 million discouraged workers in March, up by 309,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

Labor Department Survey Data

Temporary help services added 40,000 jobs in March. Since September 2009, temporary help services employment has risen by 313,000.

Employment in health care continued to increase in March (27,000), with the largest gains occurring in ambulatory health care services (16,000) and in nursing and residential care facilities (9,000).

In March, employment in mining increased by 8,000. Monthly job gains in mining have averaged 6,000 over the past 5 months.

Employment in federal government was up over the month, reflecting the hiring of 48,000 temporary workers for the decennial census, and additional employees for other government agencies.

Manufacturing employment continued to trend up in March (17,000); the industry has added 45,000 jobs in the first 3 months of 2010. Over the month, job gains were concentrated in fabricated metal products (9,000) and in machinery (6,000).

Employment in construction held steady (15,000) in March. The industry had lost an average of 72,000 jobs per month in the prior 12 months.

Over the month, employment changed little in transportation and warehousing, leisure and hospitality, retail trade, and wholesale trade, where the majority of job losses have occurred.

In March, financial activities shed 21,000 jobs, with the largest losses occurring in insurance carriers and related activities (-9,000). Employment in the information industry decreased by 12,000, as did retail.

The average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls was up by 0.1 hour to 34.0 hours in March. The manufacturing workweek for all employees increased by 0.2 hour to 39.9 hours, and factory overtime was up by 0.1 hour over the month. In March, the average workweek for production and nonsupervisory employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by 0.2 hour to 33.3 hours.

In March, average hourly earnings of all employees on private nonfarm payrolls fell by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $22.47, following a 4-cent gain in February. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by 1.8 percent. In March, average hourly earnings of private production and nonsupervisory employees fell by 2 cents, or 0.1 percent, to $18.90.

American Jobs that have gone to China.

Between 2001 and 2008, 2.4 million jobs were lost or displaced with losses occurring in every Congressional district. (Note - This does not include service industry job losses, and does not include indirect job losses which would multiply the total by 5.)

Since 2001 we have lost (to China) more tech jobs than manufacturing jobs! -- We lost 628,000 tech jobs -26 percent of all jobs displaced by trade- between 2001 and 2008.

The main advantages China uses to its advantage are:

1) Currency manipulation. China "pegs" its currency at a very low, or "weak" rate, so goods from China cost up to 40% less than they otherwise should.

2) Labor-rights suppression has lowered manufacturing wages of Chinese workers by 47% to 86%.

3) There is massive direct government subsidization of export production in many key industries.

4) China allows environmental degradation that ends up affecting all of us.

5) Intellectual property theft and piracy mean that American products that could be sold are stolen instead.

6) China has a number of policies that block U.S. firms from market access