Summer sun, hiring aplenty finds US data
21 August 2013
Two separate data releases yesterday point to good news in the US labour market – with temporary staffing activity sustaining a 2013 high, while the number of youths finding summer work was at its highest in four years.
Wed, 21 Aug 2013Two separate data releases yesterday point to good news in the US labour market – with temporary staffing activity sustaining a 2013 high, while the number of youths finding summer work was at its highest in four years.
The American Staffing Association's Staffing Index stood at 96 for the third week running in yesterday's release, covering the week ending 11 August – the highest level seen since late November 2012.
This is also the highest level seen in any week of the summer months (June, July or August) since 2007. The index has not stood higher than 100 since the end of that year, with the index first being released in June 2006.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), part of the Department of Labor, records 19.7m people aged 16-24 in work in July, a higher figure than the three previous years* in a month where youth joblessness rises highest as academic courses end.
Unemployment for this demographic was 16.3%, lower than July 2012's 17.1%, with 2011 and 2010 each being a further one percentage point higher. There was a marked difference between joblessness rates for males (17.6%, compared to 2012's 17.9%) versus females (14.8%, down from 16.2%).
The most common occupations among those 19.7m young workers were in leisure and hospitality, accounting for 5.1m of these, although 14,000 fewer than last year, or 26% of the total. Retail was the second biggest employer, or 3.8m, although this too was down 16,000 on last year. Construction and professional & business services added jobs.
*BLS only published comparative data on the topic back to 2010.
The American Staffing Association's Staffing Index stood at 96 for the third week running in yesterday's release, covering the week ending 11 August – the highest level seen since late November 2012.
This is also the highest level seen in any week of the summer months (June, July or August) since 2007. The index has not stood higher than 100 since the end of that year, with the index first being released in June 2006.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), part of the Department of Labor, records 19.7m people aged 16-24 in work in July, a higher figure than the three previous years* in a month where youth joblessness rises highest as academic courses end.
Unemployment for this demographic was 16.3%, lower than July 2012's 17.1%, with 2011 and 2010 each being a further one percentage point higher. There was a marked difference between joblessness rates for males (17.6%, compared to 2012's 17.9%) versus females (14.8%, down from 16.2%).
The most common occupations among those 19.7m young workers were in leisure and hospitality, accounting for 5.1m of these, although 14,000 fewer than last year, or 26% of the total. Retail was the second biggest employer, or 3.8m, although this too was down 16,000 on last year. Construction and professional & business services added jobs.
- Elsewhere, yesterday's new release of the American Staffing Association's Staffing Index remained for the third week running at 96 for the week ending 11 August, the index's highest level since late November last year, also the highest level obtained during a summer month (June, July or August) since 2007.
*BLS only published comparative data on the topic back to 2010.
