Just How Cooked Is The Official Jobs Data: PwC Finds More Than Half Of US Companies Are Laying Off Workers

… Piper Sandler chief economist Nancy Lazar concluded that “post-covid rightsizing means that lots more layoffs are coming” and added that “many companies overhired and overpaid during the Covid crisis.”

Since then, it’s only gotten worse for those who track corporate layoff announcements, such as the following:

#1 Ultratec Inc. says that it will be laying off more than 600 workers.
#2 Electric truck maker Rivian will be laying off approximately 840 workers.
#3 7-Eleven has announced that it will be eliminating 880 corporate jobs.
#4 Shopify is laying off about 1,000 people.
#5 Vimeo says that it will be eliminating 6 percent of its current workforce.
#6 Redfin will be reducing the size of its workforce by 8 percent.
#7 Compass will be reducing the size of its workforce by 10 percent.
#8 RE/MAX will be reducing the size of its workforce by 17 percent.
#9 Robinhood will be reducing the size of its workforce by 23 percent.
#10 It is being reported that Ford “is preparing to cut as many as 8,000 jobs in the coming weeks”.
#11 Geico has closed every single one of their offices in the state of California, and that will result in vast numbers of workers losing their jobs.
#12 Walmart is eliminating about 200 corporate jobs as it contends with rising costs, bloated inventories and weakening demand for general merchandise.

… and yet while initial jobless claims have indeed moved notably higher in recent months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics stubbornly refuses to report the true state of the US labor market, where despite continued softness in the Household Survey where no new jobs have been added since March, the far more politicized Establishment survey – which, after all, is what the Biden administration points toward as the only silver cloud in an otherwise recessionary and hyperinflating economy – has continued to show remarkable resilience and growth in recent months. So much so, that the differential between the Household and Establishment surveys has grown to a record 1.8 million jobs since March.