urbanSTL

Local jobless rate jumps to 6.3%

By David Nicklaus

03/19/2008 11:39 am



The St. Louis unemployment rate jumped to 6.3 percent in January from 5.4 percent a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this morning. The area appears to be suffering both from shrinking employment and from discouraged-worker syndrome. The number of jobholders declined by 15,500 as the area’s work force shrank by 3,600 and the number of people identified as unemployed rose by 11,900.

St. Louis still adding jobs, slowly

By David Nicklaus

04/01/2008 2:12 pm



The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that St. Louis added 5,700 jobs between February 2007 and February 2008. That’s good news, considering that many areas are starting to show job losses, but it’s a meager year-over-year growth rate of just 0.4 percent.

More bad news in local unemployment report

By David Nicklaus

04/02/2008 9:28 am



Metro St. Louis’ unemployment jumped to 6.2 percent in February from 5.6 percent a year earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning. This is consistent with the January rate, which was revised slightly upward to 6.4 percent, but it’s still inconsistent with the BLS’ separate payroll survey, which shows modest job growth in St. Louis.



The local jobless rates are not seasonally adjusted. On the same basis, the national unemployment rate was just 5.2 percent in January.

Local job numbers offer an ominous sign

By David Nicklaus

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

04/23/2008



When historians analyze just how bad the slowdown of 2008 really was, employment will be one of the first numbers they look at. Consumer spending is almost 70 percent of the economy, after all, and if folks can't find jobs they won't spend as freely.



In St. Louis, ominously, the employment numbers are now negative for the first time in more than 3 1/2 years. The metro area had 5,400 fewer jobs last month than it had a year earlier.



That's not a huge drop — it's only 0.4 percent of local employment — and it is preliminary. But if it's accurate, it's not something to be dismissed lightly. It could be the beginning of a downturn like we saw from 2001 to 2004, when metro St. Louis lost about 20,000 jobs. Until March, every month since August 2004 had shown a year-over-year job gain.



Howard Wall, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, studies the local numbers carefully. He also talks with business people regularly for the Fed's Beige Book survey, and he says hiring clearly has slowed.





"It's too early to say" whether we're entering a prolonged period of job losses, Wall said. "But employment clearly is growing more slowly than it was a year ago, or even a few months ago."

Local unemployment rate is highest since 1993

By Tim Logan

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

07/08/2008



The region's unemployment rate hit its highest level for May in 15 years, according to figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.



In the latest sign of a slumping local economy, 6 percent of the labor force was looking for work, up from 4.7 percent in May, 2007. It was the highest level for the month since 1993, when the unemployment rate hit 6.1 percent. Unemployment has been higher in other months, including January and February of this year, but those are not typically compared because the numbers have seasonal variations.



The national unemployment rate was 5.2 percent, up from 4.3 percent in May 2007.



The BLS also reported that the region shed 9,000 jobs compared to the same month last year. St. Louis was the only metropolitan area in Missouri to post a net loss of jobs year over year.

Jobless rate here is higher than in U.S.; hard-hit manufacturing sector is a key

By Tim Logan

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

10/01/2008



Yes, things are rough in the economy right now.



Housing is in the tank. Carmaking is in a crisis. And Wall Street lately has been a roller-coaster ride, with big banks toppling one after another.



But, aside perhaps from automaking, St. Louis isn't tied all that closely to any of those hard-hit industries. We're diverse, even-keeled, steady. Right?



So why is our job market faring worse than the country as a whole?





New unemployment figures released Tuesday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics are the latest example of a troubling trend: The jobless rate in the 16-county St. Louis area is significantly above the rest of the country, and, for much of the current downturn, it has been growing faster.



About 7.2 percent of St. Louis-area workers — 103,700 people — wanted work but couldn't find it in August. That's the same rate as July but up from 5.6 percent in August 2007, and the highest clip since 1992. Nationwide, the jobless rate was 6.1 percent.



When seasonal variations are taken into account, the picture is grimmer. Local joblessness jumped from 6.8 percent in July to 7 percent in August, the highest rate since 1991, according to Howard Wall, director of the Center for Regional Economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Last August, it was 5.4 percent.



While almost every sector of the economy — all but education and health care — is suffering, the hardest hit is manufacturing. It provides about one in 10 local jobs, and its losses are dragging the rest of the region down, experts say.

St. Louis’ job-loss tally stands at 12,300

By David Nicklaus

St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Employment in metro St. Louis fell by 12,300 between September 2007 and September 2008, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That continues an eight-month-long trend of job losses here, and it follows a revised year-over-year decline of 12,900 jobs in August. (That month’s loss was originally reported as 11,100.)



Here are some employment numbers in key sectors (losses or gains are since September 2007):

Jobs in St. Louis: The bleakest year in a long time

By David Nicklaus

St. Louis Post-Dispatch



I’ve been perusing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ year-end employment estimates for St. Louis, and 2008 was clearly the worst year we’ve seen in a long time. The overall loss of 23,000 jobs was the biggest since at least 1991. Looked at another way, this entire decade has been a no-growth period for the metro area: We had 5,300 fewer jobs at the end of 2008 than we had at the end of 1999.



Looking at industry-by industry data, I found only a handful of bright spots. Health care and social assistance added 2,600 jobs last year, education added 1,300 and scientific research and development added 500. So maybe our future is in the life sciences, but R&D employs a microscopic 0.7 percent of the local work force.



Among the sectors losing jobs were: