Dave Richardson's daily report notes:
> BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS, DAILY REPORT, MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2002l > > The unemployment rate increased 0.2 percentage point to 5.8 percent in > December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced. U.S. payrolls declined > by 124,000 in December and have dropped by 1.1 million in the final 4 months > of 2001. Manufacturing continued to suffer the heaviest job losses, > followed by air transportation, retail trade, and help supply. ***However, the > losses were offset by employment gains in services and government,*** BLS said. I have noticed that a number of forcasters have noted the less than expected rise in unemployment indicates that the economy is beginning to rebound from the recession. But if one of the reasons that the rise in unemployment was due to the increase in government employment, how much of that is at the state level which, due to requirements for balanced budgets, means that curtailment of employment will occur if the recession cuts into state revenues. In other words, is the recent increase in public employment sustainable, or will subsequent cuts to state revenues reverse the procedure and lead to falling public employment? Anybody got any ideas? Paul Phillips, Economics, University of Manitoba
