First the good news: Retail Hiring Shift May Show Growing Confidence in Recovery
U.S. discount, grocery and restaurant chains are hiring a larger percentage of job applicants than seven months ago, signaling confidence the economy may be improving, software maker Kronos Inc. said.
Kronos analyzed the 8.9 million job applications received by 68 retailers in the first seven months of the year. In July, 2.99 of every 100 applications resulted in a hire, compared with 2.75 in January, a three-year low, the Chelmsford, Massachusetts-based company said today in a statement.
And now the other news (with a chart): Temporary Hiring Is Bad Sign for Jobs
U.S. companies are still reducing the ranks of temporary workers, showing that any rebound in overall employment won’t happen soon, according to William Hester, an analyst at Hussman Econometrics.
The Chart of the Day compares the number of temporary employees with nonfarm payrolls since 1990, according to data compiled by the Labor Department. Increases in the number of temporary jobs in 1991 and 2003 preceded similar recoveries in payrolls, as the chart illustrates.
"Temporary hiring is a reliable leading indicator," Hester wrote yesterday in a report that featured a similar chart. Last month’s decline in these jobs was "one of the most discouraging data points" in the latest employment report, he added.
Click here for a larger chart