While the nonfarm payroll number gets most of the attention each employment Friday, it's important to look at some of the data buried deeper in each monthly report. One piece of data – the index of aggregate weekly hours – which is basically the workweek times the number of people employed, is very important. It calculates the total amount of work being done, not just the number of people doing it. In May, the index jumped 0.4% from April and now stands at 99.3. This is up 3.7% at an annual rate from its low in October 2009. This is a sharp increase, and clearly shows demand for labor is picking up faster than in past recoveries. After bottoming in July 2003, aggregate hours increased just 1.9% at an annual rate in the next seven months, and after the 1990-1991 recession, the aggreagte weekly hours index was only up at a 0.6% annual rate seven months after its low in April 1991 (the true "jobless" recovery). In other words, the current recovery in the labor market seems to be gaining steam faster than any since the recovery of the early 1980s. We expect this to continue as the V-shaped recovery unfolds further in the months ahead.
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