By Vahan Janjigian - Today's announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that nonfarm payrolls dropped by 85,000 in December is a big disappointment, especially to the many investors who were betting that the economy was on the mend. While the headline number is bad enough, the figures down below are worse. For example, although the number of officially unemployed people fell slightly to 15.267 million, the number of employed people dropped by 589,000 because the labor force shrank. In fact, 2.5 million people are no longer considered a part of the labor force even though they want to work and they sought work during the past 12 months. They are excluded because they did not look for work during the past four weeks. In addition, 9.2 million people are working part time, not by choice, but because they can't find full time employment.
One bright spot of the labor report is that temporary jobs increased by 47,000. This is considered good news because corporations often hire temporary workers as business conditions improve before making a commitment to take on permanent employees. In fact, in recent months, at least a couple of equity analysts raised their outlook on Manpower (MAN), a leading temporary employment agency. The stock is up about 30% since November and has more than doubled since the March 9, 2009 low.
Disclosure: The author has an ownership interest in Manpower (MAN) shares.
