Above is a chart for total non-farm payrolls. Notice the following:-- The total number of non-farm jobs is almost at the level of the peak from the last expansion.
-- The best read of job creation from the last expansion is we created 8.2 million jobs. We have now lost 5.1 million jobs, or 62.19% of all jobs created during the last expansion. That's the largest percentage lost of jobs created in the previous expansion for any expansion in the last 60 years.
Above is a chart for total manufacturing jobs in the US. Notice this area of the economy did not grow at all during the latest expansion. Some of this was caused by the increase in productivity. But there is also the issue of the US not increasing its manufacturing base significantly enough to warrant the hiring of new employees. My guess is this is the result of a bubble economy.
Above is a chart of total service employment. Notice this is the primary place where jobs grew during the last expansion. In fact of the 8.2 million jobs created, 8.5 million came from the service sector. In other words, we have a net loss of manufacturing jobs throughout the last expansion that was entirely made up for by the gain in service sector jobs. And -- we have a long way to go to in terms of service jobs to lose.
