Did you know the labor market is still contracting?

The key factor is the total number of hours worked, not the number with a part-time job.

Via The WSJ:

Job creation rose from an initial 113,000 in January (later revised to 129,000) to 175,000 in February. The January number frightened many, while the February number was cheered—even though it was below the prior 12-month average of 189,000.

The labor market's strength and economic activity are better measured by the number of total hours worked than by the number of people employed. An employer who replaces 100 40-hour-per-week workers with 120 20-hour-per-week workers is contracting, not expanding operations. The same is true at the national level.

The total hours worked per week is obtained by multiplying the reported average workweek hours by the number of workers employed. The decline in the average workweek for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls by 3/10ths of an hour—offset partially by the increase in the number of people working—means that real labor usage on net, taking into account hours worked, fell by the equivalent of 100,000 jobs since September.

Rotten Apple

Apples stock has plummeted over 30% recently. There is fear the company has lost it's mojo after the death of Steve Jobs. Adding to thier misery is the news they are using child labor in China.

Apple has discovered multiple cases of child labour in its supply chain, including one Chinese company that employed 74 children under the age of 16, in the latest controversy over the technology giant's manufacturing methods.

An internal audit found a flipside to the western consumer's insatiable thirst for innovative and competitively priced gadgets. It uncovered 106 cases of underage labour being used at Apple suppliers last year and 70 cases historically. The report follows a series of worker suicides over working conditions at Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that assembles must-have products such as the iPad and iPhone, and lethal explosions at other plants.

Apple's annual supplier report – which monitors nearly 400 suppliers – found that children were employed at 11 factories involved in making its products. A number of them had been recruited using forged identity papers.

Chart of the Day: 1.5 million Americans dropped out of the labor force in December

Chart of the Day: 1.5 million Americans dropped out of the workforce in December.

Via Zero Hedge:

Public union employees rally for higher taxes

Notice the 'AstroTurf' professionally printed signs.

In Illinois, labor unions and social service advocates held a rally at the Capitol today demanding higher taxes. They chanted,

"Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes!"

Illinois legislators should help them out by passing a tax on labor unions.

The Chicago Tribune reported:

Thousands of protesters bused down by labor unions and social service advocates rallied at the Capitol today in an attempt to pressure state lawmakers into raising the income tax to avoid more budget cuts.

A spokesman for Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White estimated the rally crowd at 15,000...

"Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes! Raise my taxes!" they chanted, lined up shoulder to shoulder for a few hundred yards stretching a street in front of the Capitol.

Protesting is exhausting work for public employees.