Planned Job Cuts Higher, Payroll To Population Unchanged

A major Army cutback made for an outsized 105,696 layoff count in July. The Army said it is cutting 57,000 jobs over the next two years (note that Challenger counts layoffs at the time of announcement, not when layoffs actually occur). Heavy layoffs, at 18,891, were also announced in computer & electronics.

...meanwhile...

The U.S. Payroll to Population employment rate (P2P), as measured by Gallup, was 45.5 percent in July, unchanged from the previous month, and the highest rate Gallup has measured for any July since tracking began in 2010. The P2P measurements for the past two months tie for the second-highest recorded by Gallup after October 2012, when P2P hit 45.7 percent. This increase in P2P rates in the summer months is in line with an expected seasonal rise in full-time employment, though the baseline trend is higher in 2015 than it has been in the past two years.

The percentage of U.S. adults participating in the workforce in July was 66.9 percent. While this is 0.3 percentage points higher than July of last year and at least 0.6 points lower than the rate measured in any other July since Gallup began tracking it in January 2010. Since that time, the workforce participation rate has remained in a narrow range, from a low of 65.8 percent to a high of 68.5 percent. 

Gallup's unadjusted U.S. unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in July, up nominally from June's 6.0 percent, but still near the 5.8 percent low point from December 2014 in Gallup's five-year trend. However, after years of gradual decline, Gallup's unemployment measurement has not substantially changed from the 6.3 percent measured in July 2014. Gallup's U.S. unemployment rate represents the percentage of adults in the workforce who did not have any paid work in the past seven days, for an employer or themselves, and who were actively looking for and available to work.

Gallup's measure of underemployment in July is 14.2 percent, the lowest level recorded since Gallup began tracking it daily in 2010. Gallup's U.S. underemployment rate combines the percentage of adults in the workforce who are unemployed (6.1 percent) and those who are working part time but desire full-time work (8.1 percent).