{"content":[{"text":"It appears several companies have made the decision to temporarily lay-off workers \n until normal production resumes. The motor vehicles and parts industry had job \n losses of 27,000 last month. Firms making wood products, like furniture, dropped \n 7,000 from their payrolls.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.069958,"width":0.6998850000000001,"height":0.06889999999999998}},{"text":"Nor is the jobs report necessarily inconsistent with other key economic indicators. \n While most analysts will focus on the uplifting ISM headline numbers, or that of \n new orders, the fact is these orders cannot be fulfilled if inventories and stockpiles \n are empty. At this stage of the business cycle, we place greater significance on \n supplier deliveries. The length of time between orders and deliveries is now the \n longest in nearly 50 years! As a result, the backlog of orders is highest in three \n decades.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.156928,"width":0.684767,"height":0.12132399999999999}},{"text":"Given this backdrop, the census estimates of payrolls growing by more than 1 \n million in April just seemed nonsensical.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.296321,"width":0.648333,"height":0.03435499999999997}},{"text":"The service sector may be experiencing a different set of issues. Leisure and \n hospitality boosted payrolls by 331,000 last month and that helped slash the \n unemployment rate for that industry to 10.8% from 39.3% a year ago.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.348746,"width":0.631865,"height":0.05162699999999998}},{"text":"But to lure those workers back, many employers had to raise pay. Average hourly \n earnings in L&H (for nonsupervisory workers) jumped 6.8% over the past 12 \n months. Average weekly pay for all employees in L&H rose nearly 10% since April \n 2020.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.418443,"width":0.6958200000000001,"height":0.06889999999999996}},{"text":"But other segments of the service sector, especially those with lower pay scales like \n couriers, messengers and temp workers could not hold on to employees.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.505412,"width":0.6877620000000001,"height":0.034355000000000024}},{"text":"Employment in couriers and messengers plummeted by 77,400 last month and \n temporary workers fell by more than 111,000.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.575412,"width":0.653728,"height":0.03405199999999997}},{"text":"Restaurants and bars have been offering higher wages to entice workers back. But \n companies providing couriers and messenger services are finding it hellishly \n difficult to recall former employees or hire new ones. Case in point: average hourly \n earnings for couriers and messengers fell 1.8% the last 12 months! And while \n temporary workers did see a 4.6% annual increase in average hourly pay, even that \n was not enough to keep them.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.662988,"width":0.699235,"height":0.10405199999999992}},{"text":"Clearly there are industries in both manufacturing and services that are eager to \n beef up staff as the pace of economic activity accelerates. But those efforts are being \n frustrated. In some cases the problem is a mismatch in skills. You can’t train a one- \n time courier on a bike to become an IT specialist overnight.","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.802685,"width":0.699686,"height":0.06889999999999996}},{"text":"There are, of course, other reasons why employers have encountered difficulties","bbox":{"left":0.147288,"top":0.889655,"width":0.666728,"height":0.01677899999999999}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}