Manufacturing Sector Profits Down From 2011

The Department of Commerce released its quarterly report on the health of the U.S. manufacturing sector today.  Manufacturing corporations' profits totaled $149.0 billion in the second quarter of 2012, up $0.7 billion from the previous quarter, but down from the $153.4 billion logged in the second quarter of 2011.  Though profits have idled, they’ve still rallied significantly since posting losses of more than $70 billion in late 2008.  In fact, current profits are the highest experienced in the 21^stcentury other than the marginally higher 2^nd quarter in 2011. 

"Disappointing" April Jobs Report

A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses what it refers to as a "disappointing jobs report" for April.  While the unemployment rate decreased to 8.1%, this drop can largely be attributed to the 342,000 people who left the labor force over the same time period.  The interactive graphic from the article, which includes three graphs, highlights several unemployment trends since the recession began in 2008.  In one graph, the percentage change in payroll employment from 2008 to 2012 is compared to four other periods of recession.  As the graph shows, all jobs had been recovered by year five of the previous recessions but have still not been recovered since the recession beginning in 2008.  Another graph shows the percentage change in payroll employment since 2008.  As this graph indicates, construction has made little improvement at -25.8% while the education and health sector have improved by 9.1% since 2008.  Lastly, the third graph shows the percent change in payroll employment since 2008 by gender.  According to the graph, men were hit worse initially by the recession but have since made a more rapid recovery.  Currently, however, women are only 2.6% below pre-recession employment while men remain 4.6% below.