Saturday, October 22, 2011

State Unemployment Rates "little changed" in September + INTERACTIVE: Where the jobs are + State unemployment rates


[mEDITate-OR:
assume that the numbers for your state
are also the numbers for where you live.
-------------
For example AZ is said to grow +.9%
however Phoenix will be only +.1% and Tucson is -.6%
Washington is said to grow by +.9%
but, Olyberg is -.8%, Tackyoma is +.2%, Seattle is +.6%, and Bellingham is -.2%
Oregons is said to grow by a full 1.0%
but, Eugene is -.3%, Salem is -.7% and Portland is +.6%
------------
From the BLS:
"Forty-six states recorded unemployment rates that were not appreciably different from those of a year earlier."
From CR:
The fact that 46 states have seen little or no improvement over the last year is a reminder that the unemployment crisis is ongoing.
-------------
And, notice that the West Coast states are ALL below the national average
with Nevada and Cal the absolute worst.

========
The interactive by USA Today and Moody's Analytics provides you and U.S. with a fascinating by city or by state view of where we might be going.
So, take a look at your home town and state.
=========
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State unemployment

Rank
State
Sept. 2011
1
NORTH DAKOTA
3.5%
2
NEBRASKA
4.2%
3
SOUTH DAKOTA
4.6%
4
NEW HAMPSHIRE
5.4%
5
VERMONT
5.8%
5
WYOMING
5.8%
7
OKLAHOMA
5.9%
8
IOWA
6.0%
9
HAWAII
6.4%
10
VIRGINIA
6.5%
11
NEW MEXICO
6.6%
12
KANSAS
6.7%
13
LOUISIANA
6.9%
13
MINNESOTA
6.9%
15
MASSACHUSETTS
7.3%
16
MARYLAND
7.4%
16
UTAH
7.4%
18
MAINE
7.5%
19
ALASKA
7.6%
20
MONTANA
7.7%
21
WISCONSIN
7.8%
22
NEW YORK
8.0%
23
DELAWARE
8.1%
24
WEST VIRGINIA
8.2%
25
ARKANSAS
8.3%
25
COLORADO
8.3%
25
PENNSYLVANIA
8.3%
28
TEXAS
8.5%
29
MISSOURI
8.7%
30
CONNECTICUT
8.9%
30
INDIANA
8.9%
32
IDAHO
9.0%
33
ARIZONA
9.1%
33
OHIO
9.1%
33
WASHINGTON
9.1%
36
NEW JERSEY
9.2%
37
OREGON
9.6%
38
KENTUCKY
9.7%
39
ALABAMA
9.8%
39
TENNESSEE
9.8%
41
ILLINOIS
10.0%
42
GEORGIA
10.3%
43
NORTH CAROLINA
10.5%
43
RHODE ISLAND
10.5%
45
FLORIDA
10.6%
45
MISSISSIPPI
10.6%
47
SOUTH CAROLINA
11.0%
48
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
11.1%
48
MICHIGAN
11.1%
50
CALIFORNIA
11.9%
51
NEVADA
13.4%
=========
State Unemployment Rates "little changed" in September
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/10/state-unemployment-rates-little-changed.html
-------------
INTERACTIVE: Where the jobs are
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/Jobs-Forecast-2011/34083932/1
--------------
State unemployment rates
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2011-10-21/unemployment-states-september/50854214/1
=====================

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Correlating U.S. Demographics, Trade Deficits and Employment

[mEDITate-OR:


--------
John's Conclusion
The U.S. has been on a consumption binge.
The examination discussed here indicates that the country has been living beyond its means to produce what it consumes. That doesn't even consider that we have to import more than half of the energy used. If the production of even part of the production of goods that have been imported over the lat 14 years had been retained domestically, there would not have been enough labor available to fill the jobs that would have been required.
So the U.S. has been living beyond its means in three ways:
1 - Beyond its means to provide energy used;
2 - Beyond its means to pay; and
3 - Beyond its means to produce what it consumes.
------------

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-----------

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=====
Correlating U.S. Demographics, Trade Deficits and Employment
http://seekingalpha.com/article/253948-correlating-u-s-demographics-trade-deficits-and-employment
======

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Getting Real aboot (Can) "Real" Household Income

[mEDITate-OR:
think what you think you are supposed to think...
when The Facts don't support that.
-------
The following analysis is from John Lounsbury, and provides U.S. with a very interesting view of: when we were much better off, and now, when we are not.
Howsomever, what John admits is that he cannot see The Why of It.
Eliminate the Baby Boomers, eliminate RonnieR and Little Willie Clinton, eliminate woemen (theoretically, of course) and what are "we left" with...?
Tis too Far Right to blame it all on W...!!!
And that's true even if/since he really deserves it.
------
However, there are some parsings that need to be considered:
FIRST, when woemen left home to work did not occur at the same time as the rise in single parent homes. So, adding a 2nd income would substantially increase "household" incomes, and divorces would substantially decrease them. But, when? And, by how much?
SECOND, the decline in high(er) paying "labor union" jobs may have been offset by the dot.com bubble; but NAFTA exported them. We need to factor in precisely when that happened.
THIRD, just after 9-11 the "war economy" - using Gulf Oil states loans to U.S. - did not appear to create many high income jobs; but the 02-06 housing bubble - using Chinese loans to U.S. - obviously did. When that bubble burst the economy tanked.
---------
Said/asked Humpty:
"This is really Dumpty. Can no body put U.S. back together again?"
(or something like that)

-----------
John's Conclusion
We still have a mystery not explained about why the “golden years” for real household income occurred when and how they did.
Until more data is examined we will have to listen to Republicans talk about the genius of Reagan and the Democrats about the acumen of Clinton.
-------------

-------------
There are really three periods of unique behavior for real median household income: 
1967-1982
1983-1999 and
2000 -2011.
This quite evident in the following graph:

-----------
Number of Married Women Working
In the following graph we see that the number of married women working was growing much faster than married men.

---------
The fact that a disproportionate increase in the number of women working was not a factor is seen in the following graph, where the ratio of married men to married women working has been plotted.

----------
Another factor that should be looked at is the increase in the number of unmarried couples forming households in the past twenty years or so.
That would also increase household income for what were formerly two households have become one and do not show up in the data for married men and women.
Employment Population Ratio
something that we would expect to be affected by the baby boom bubble
but, the baby boomers are all in the over-twenty population by 1984.

And the baby boom cannot explain why real household income has dropped so much in the years since 2000.  The first baby boomers only reached age 65 this year.
It is clear that the baby boomers probably helped boost the population participation rate, but...
most of the baby boomers were in the work force by the mid 1980s.
=========
Real  Household Income
http://econintersect.com/wordpress/?p=14397
=======

Friday, October 14, 2011

U.S. Birth Rate and Per Capita Income Down + In a Down Economy, Fewer Births + The New Demography of American Motherhood

[mEDITate-OR:
miss the change..., in life....
more college educated mothers...
less teen aged, more older woemen
and
more foreign born mothers.
------
If we were not outnumbered before...
we are now and will be even more so...

----------
And, 40% of Those People are unmarried...
if they didn't need U.S., they wouldn't want U.S. around.
And, they probably do not anyway.

-----
stork-and-baby
----------

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======
U.S. Birth Rate and Per Capita Income Down
http://econintersect.com/b2evolution/blog1.php/2011/10/14/u-s-birth-rate-down
--------------
In a Down Economy, Fewer Births
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/10/12/in-a-down-economy-fewer-births/
------------
The New Demography of American Motherhood
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/05/06/the-new-demography-of-american-motherhood/
=======

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Consumer Credit Contracts Due to Student Loans

[mEDITate-OR:
not see the Devil...
in the details...
----------

JGBHimself says:
First, Steven, this is the only serious discussion of the effects of student loans on this months numbers we have seen, and we have looked. Well done.

Second, there is another data set you might want to incorporate into these charts, namely the use of debit cards as opposed to credit cards.

True, this is skewered (sp?) by the swipe fee problems, but the huge increase in the use of debit cards and/or cash to pay for consumer goods and services is directly connected to the measurement of the deleveraging by some or most of U.S.

However, IF an increase in the use of "credit cards" is matched by a decrease in "debit card" use, then there may not really BE an increase in "credit", but only a change in the way we are paying for "stuff", from China, at Walmart, this month.

Like you, we have watched the decline in credit card balances, to attempt to see if that was caused by a decline in use, OR was caused by card cancellations and write offs. What we, too, watched was the huge shift to using debit cards.

What many of U.S. figured out was that using debit or cash eliminated all "late" and "overdraft" fees. Given the fact that the Big Bad Banksters make more money off those fees than they do off the interest that they charge, possibly WE are the real cause of all their financial problems:)

We "swiped" their fees; and now the evil empire is "swiping" back
------------

==========
Consumer Credit Contracts Due to Student Loans
http://econintersect.com/wordpress/?p=14184
=============

Phoenix Home Price Index by Price Level

[mEDITate-OR:
think that all AZ's are equal...
-------
As John Wake points out this IS fascinating.
The two highest priced tiers stopped climbing earlier than the bottom tier.
AND, the bottom tier not only topped out higher
but, then dropped the most.
------
What is also interesting is that the middle tier dropped less than the highest tier.
However, we MUST remember that this is Case-Shiller a repeat sales index
which means the foreclosures had a HUGE impact on the lowest tier.
And, that the sales of mid and higher tiers have collapsed.
No sales means NO records in CS to view.
---------
Tier Breakpoints (July 2011)
Low Tier – Up to $94,859
Middle Tier – $94,859 – $167,547
High Tier – $167,547 and up
------------

==========
Phoenix Home Price Index by Price Level
http://www.arizonarealestatenotebook.com/2011/10/06/phoenix-home-price-index-by-price-level/
======

Consumer borrowing dropped $9.5 billion in August + Contracts Due to Student Loans

[mEDITate-OR:
assume that "The Headlines" are telling you The Truth
-----------
However, as EconIntersecs points out...
Student Loans were MUCH lower than before.
----------
It is student loans which distort the analysis as they grew ONLY 55% year-over-year this month
– down from a 70% annual growth last month.
Student loans this month were over 14% of total credit
– and accounted for one-half of consumer credit growth.
In some previous months, it has been literally the entire growth of consumer credit
---------
Why? What Happened?
-------------
--------------
-------------
----------
===========
Consumer borrowing dropped $9.5 billion in August
largest amount since April 2010 
----------------
August 2011 Consumer Credit Contracts Due to Student Loans
===========

Friday, October 7, 2011

Arizona jobs forecast in 2011, 2012 worse than originally projected + Census: Maricopa County on top of list for home vacancies

[mEDITate-OR:
not see that the vacancies almost equal the loss in population/jobs
---------
What is also interesting is that
this year the job gains are equal to 4.78%
and
next year equal to 9.23%
of the prior three years losses.
Or in two years AZ will recover 14.0% of the prior three years losses.
-------------
In the next two years AZ will gain back less than were lost last year in 2011.
---------
In numbers 15,500 + 29,900 = 45,400
Losses were 324,000
Therefore we are still down by over 300,000
- IF you add in population growth.
--------
Translated = If we grow by this years rate it will take over 20 years to recover
But, if we grow by next years projection, it might take only 10 years
---------------
Almost 14 percent of all homes are empty in Maricopa County
227,696 single-family homes, condominiums and apartments were empty
Tucson has about 230,000 housing units.
So Maricopa County's vacancies are the equivalent to an empty city the size of Tucson.
Maricopa County's population grew 24 percent
while its housing stock grew 31 percent.
In 2009..., Phoenix had more than 100,000 houses built in 2004-06 still sitting empty.
----------------
Statewide, housing units increased 30 percent from 2000 to 2010.
The state's population grew 25 percent during the same time.
---------------
Clark County, home to Las Vegas, actually had a higher vacancy rate of 14.9 percent.
But it is not among the nation's 10 most-populous counties.
==============
The state lost has 324,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007
Arizona employers are expected to add more jobs than they cut in 2011
- the first year that has happened since 2007
Arizona is expected to gain 15,500 non-farm jobs in 2011, compared with last year
In 2012, the state is projected to gain 29,900 jobs over 2011
in Arizona's health care and private-education industries
projected to see 4.5 percent growth in 2011, adding 15,400 jobs,
and another 3.6 percent bump in 2012, up 12,900 jobs
============
Census: Maricopa County on top of list for home vacancies
http://www.azcentral.com/business/realestate/articles/2011/10/07/20111007maricopa-county-tops-home-vacancies-list.html
---------------
Arizona jobs forecast in 2011, 2012 worse than originally projected
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/2011/10/06/20111006biz-arizona-jobs-forecast-worse-than-projected-brk06-ON.html
==========

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

CoreLogic = Shadow inventory declines to five-month supply + Existing Home Shadow Inventory Declines to 1.6 million units

[mEDITate-OR:
wonder where all those empty homes went to...
except for the ones they forgot to empty.
------------
Good Morning, CoreLogic
This months September 27, 2011 CoreLogic Reports Shadow Inventory Continues to Decline
is once again, very interesting.
However, we note some things that are what we call "a puzzlement".
For example;
When we view your months supply chart, we see that IF
we compare that last three January and July numbers we see that they are very similar.
True, the Jan 10 number of months is the highest, but the Jan 09 and 11 months appear to be about the same level
Is that truly the case?
When we look at what happened AFTER July, in 09 and 10 there was a Steep increase to the next Jan
Is there any reason to believe that will not happen this year?
We expect those answer to be both "yes".
When we view your total inventory chart, once again 09 appears to be very similar to 11
with a slight decline in REO inventory, but an increase in pending FC inventory.
so that IF the banksters move more FC inventory into REO inventory we would be almost identical.
Two very serious questions:
First, BoA has recently increase their West Coast NOTS by 116%, more than double.
In, of all places, the sand states of Cal, Nev and AZ (with WA & Ore thrown in)
The question is, of course, does your FC inventory include ALL of those BoA filings?
Or will you be adding them later?
Second, there is a HUGE controversy about Arid-zone-Ahh.
Some argue, using your reports, that all three of the categories you show U.S. are almost gone in AZ.
Some do not believe that is necessarily true.
So, CoreLogic, can you ask The Putative Economist
aka, One (1) Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic
to tell U.S. if HE knows? What the numbers really are in AZ?
And, can he show U.S. that Az is almost empty?
Well, of immigrants, true; but...
of any and all "shadow inventory" ??
IF this is already shown somewhere, tell me were to go...
to find it.
---------------

---------

=========
Shadow inventory declines to five-month supply: CoreLogic
http://www.housingwire.com/2011/09/27/shadow-inventory-declines-to-five-month-supply-corelogic
---------------
Shadow Inventory in U.S. Continues to Decline in July
Supply Falls to 1.6 Million Units
http://www.worldpropertychannel.com/us-markets/residential-real-estate-1/shadow-inventory-residential-foreclosures-corelogic-multiple-listing-services-mls-listings-unsold-homes-distressed-sales-reo-properties-for-sale-4819.php
--------
CoreLogic: Existing Home Shadow Inventory Declines to 1.6 million units
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2011/09/corelogic-existing-home-shadow.html
==========