Did you know rich students get financial help from colleges while the poor ones get laden with debt instead? Such is the conclusion of a new report, Demerit Aid, from the New America Foundation. While Pell grants tallied $35 billion in 2012, universities are reducing their own financial aid based on income and instead, shifting those funds to the wealthy students.
The BLS March JOLTS report, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows there are 3.1 official unemployed per job opening, the same as last month. Job openings declined -1.4% from last month to a total of 3,844,000. People hired in March declined by -4.3% to 4.259 million. Real hiring has only increased 18% from June 2009. Job openings are still below pre-recession levels of 4.7 million. Job openings have increased 81% from July 2009. The story for jobs is the same flat line drum beat for March. There is never enough actual hiring in addition to not enough openings.
The BLS employment report shows the official unemployment rate ticked down 0.1 percentage point to 7.5%, and the current population survey statistics are a mixed bag of strange. More people were employed, yet the number of people stuck in part-time jobs continues to increase. The labor participation rate stayed at the same May 1979 record low. U-6, a broader measure of unemployment, ticked up 0.1 percentage point to 13.9%.
The U.S. March 2013 monthly trade deficit decreased 11% to $38.8 billion. U.S. exports decreased $1.7 billion or -0.9%. Imports declined by $6.5 billion, a -2.8% decrease. Expect an upward revision on the trade component to Q1 GDP, assuming prices were stable.
ADP's proprietary private payrolls jobs report shows a gained of 119,000 private sector jobs for April 2013. ADP revised their March job figures down by 27,000 to 131 thousand. February's tally was revised down by 39,000 to a total of 198 thousand private sector jobs gained for the month. This is the weakest monthly ADP reported private sector job growth since August 2012.
The April 2013 ISM Manufacturing Survey shows PMI slid by -0.6 percentage points to 50.7%. This is expansion but much slower. Expansion has occurred for the 5th month in a row., although this is the lowest PMI of 2013. Overall the report implies a stagnant manufacturing sector, ho hum, and not much to write home about.
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