The Week Ahead

Last week on the blog, we celebrated the start of the new state fiscal year by featuring the highlights of this year's budget. We also marked Independence Day with Stateline's infographic, "Fourth of July, By The Numbers."

On Tuesday of last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its Metropolitan Area Employment report for May. Maryland's overall civilian unemployment rate was 6.9 percent, up from 6.4 percent in April and 6.7 percent the same time last year. The metropolitan areas of Baltimore-Towson, Cumberland, and Salisbury all saw small increases in their unemployment rates, while Hagerstown-Martinsburg's employment figures remained constant since April. 

Last week BLS also published its Employment Situation figures for June, which reported that the total nonfarm employment increased by 195,000 last month, keeping the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent. According to BLS, the overall employment situation has changed very little since February.

For the week of July 8th through 14th:

• On Tuesday, July 9th, the Maryland Pesticide Reporting and Information Work Group meets from 9am to noon in room 250 of the House Office Building at 6 Bladen Street in Annapolis. They will overview the current state pesticide laws and regulations.
• Also on Tuesday, BLS will publish its Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey for May at 10am.
• Later on Tuesday, the Community Services Reimbursement Rate Commission has their regular bi-monthly meeting from 6pm to 8pm in the basement conference room of the Mental Hygiene Administration Building at 55 Wade Avene in Catonsville.
• On Wednesday, July 10, the Maryland Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Authority meets at 9am in the lower level conference room at One Call Center, 7223 Parkway Drive in Hanover.
• On Friday, July 12, BLS will issue its Producer Price Index numbers for June at 8:30am.

US adds 88k jobs, but 500k leave the work force

National employment trends were mixed in March, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today.

The unemployment rate ticked down one tenth of one percentage point over the last month, to 7.6 percent. Compared to a year ago, the unemployment rate has fallen six tenths of a percentage point.

Minority unemployment rates remain high, but are also improving. Black unemployment was 13.3 percent, down half a percentage point. Hispanic unemployment was 9.2 percent after a similar decline. Teens 16-19 years of age continue to have the highest unemployment rate at 24.2 percent; yet even this group saw their rate drop by almost a full percentage point. Veterans of the second Gulf War also experience high unemployment in the civilian world, with a rate of 9.2 percent.

Employers added 88,000 jobs in March, mostly in the construction, business and professional services, and education and health services sectors. Retail trade lost the most jobs during the month.

More troubling, the labor force participation rate fell two tenths of a percentage point to 63.3 percent as 496,000 Americans stopped working or looking for work.

MD unemployment down to 6.9 percent

BLS released state-level employment figures for September this morning. Maryland's unemployment rate fell for the first time in six months, to 6.9 percent.

More than 11,000 Marylanders joined the ranks of the employed, as state employers added 9,800 jobs. Every industry sector added jobs or was flat, except for financial services which lost 300. The largest gains were in professional and business services (4,100 new jobs) and trade, transportation, and utilities (2,000 new jobs).

Positive employment trends such as those shown here are good news for Marylanders and the state's budget. Increased employment means more income tax and more purchases resulting in sales tax, the two main components of state revenue. It also suggests that demand for social services may decline in the future, if the jobs added pay a living wage. If this trend continues, Maryland will be better positioned to pay for the investments in schools, roads, public safety, parks, and healthcare that make this state great.

Of course, as we highlighted earlier today, if Congress fails to act to avert sequestration or the fiscal cliff Maryland could be back at square one.

US Unemployment rate stuck at 8.2 percent

128,000 more Americans had jobs in June compared to one month earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unfortunately, this was not enough to move the unemployment rate, which remained unchanged at 8.2 percent. The professional and business services industry added 47,000 jobs, while employment in other major industries changed little over the month.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics: "The Employment Situation - June 2012"

The national monthly jobs report contains much more than just the unemployment rate and distribution of new jobs. Highlights include:

• Unemployment among teenagers ages 16-19 fell almost a full percentage point, to 23.7 percent.
• As we discussed yesterday, blacks had a much higher unemployment rate (14.4 percent) than whites (7.4 percent), Asians (6.3 percent), or Hispanics (11 percent).
• Those without a high school credential were much more likely to be unemployed (12.6 percent) than those with the credential (8.4 percent), some college or a two year degree (7.5 percent), or a college degree (4.1 percent).
• 8.2 million workers were underemployed (working part-time for economic reasons) in June, an increase of 112,000.
• There are still 5.4 million workers among the ranks of the long term unemployed (27 week or more). 
• The unemployment rate does not include the 2.5 million workers who are not counted as part of the labor force. 821,000 of them are discouraged workers--those who want to work but have given up looking.

New Certified Public Manager program

Over lunch I attended an open house for a new partnership between Maryland Nonprofits and the Schaefer Center for Public Policy at the University of Baltimore, the Maryland Certified Public Manager(CPM) program.

Starting in October, the CPM program is a leadership development program for public managers and supervisors. The program will offer "participants the opportunity to learn and practice the critical leadership skills and competencies necessary to effectively meet the complex demands and challenges in the 21st century public management environment."

The program is designed for people who are preparing to move into supervisory or management positions, those who want to update their skills, as well as managers and supervisors who have professional or technical training in another field but do not have formal management training. 

If you or your organization/agency are interested, applications are being accepted now through 5pm, August 2nd. The next informational session about the program will be held on July 26th from 9-11am at our offices at 1500 Union Ave. in Baltimore.

Metropolitan Employment

In other news, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released May data on metro area labor markets today.  The trends look better for Maryland than they have in the last few months, as all four metros experienced lower unemployment rates compared to May 2011 (BLS does not provide seasonally adjusted figures at the metro level, so comparing April to May is meaningless). Even Salisbury, which has seen higher rates on an annual basis until last month when it was stable, fell to 8.5 percent unemployment, compared to 8.9 percent 12 months prior.

MD unemployment rate edged up, but so did manufacturing employment

Maryland's unemployment rate edged up one tenth of one percentage point in April, to 6.7 percent.  This is still down from a year ago, when the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent.  There were 1,400 more Marylanders in the labor force last month compared to the month before, but 2,500 fewer employed residents. Because the growth in the ranks of the unemployed was larger than the growth in the labor force, the bump up in the unemployment rate was likely the result of actual jobs lost rather than merely a larger pool of workers.

In the accompanying survey of establishments, Maryland businesses employed 6,000 fewer individuals in April (the total differs from the unemployment rate figures above because - due to differences in methodology between the two surveys - some of these individuals may work in MD but live out of state, or work more than one job).  The largest decline was in the leisure and hospitality sector (-3,900), followed by the professional and business services sector (-2,200).  The government sector also lost 100 jobs.

More positively, the manufacturing sector added 1,200 jobs in April.  Education and health services - a perennial employment generator for the state - also added 700 employees last month.  Overall, Maryland's employers have added 40,600 new jobs since April of 2011.