U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI)® January 2020

NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Following the release of the Employment Situation Report for January 2020 by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (JQI)® has been revised to a level of 82.68, up by 0.76% from its revised level one month earlier and reflecting a lower proportion - relative to the prior month - of U.S. production and non-supervisory (P&NS) jobs paying less than the mean weekly income of all P&NS jobs, relative to those jobs paying above such mean. The mean weekly wage income of all P&NS jobs as of the current reading (which reflects the level as of December 2019) was $764.69, a change of +0.07% from its level the month prior. The current level of the JQI® reflects a stabilization of the index after fluctuations due to the General Motors strike in fall of 2019 and the effects of the annual rebalancing of the BLS employment statistics in the January 2020 release.

The JQ-InstantTM preliminary read of the 206,000 increase in all private sector, non-farm payrolls in January 2020 shows that approximately 55.19% of the change in private sector jobs in January was in industry sectors offering P&NS jobs with an average weekly income below the above mean weekly income of all P&NS jobs (i.e. "Low Quality Jobs"). The reading is better that the revised 70.07% and reflects a surge in construction job formation and some increase in computer services. Yet average of the JQ-Instant readings for the last six months indicated a weighted average of 62.84% Low Quality Job formation for that period, substantially higher than the first half of 2019.

Daniel Alpert, co-creator of the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index, said, "This month saw the BLS conduct its annual rebalancing of jobs data, which showed a whopping 514,000 fewer people being employed than previously thought. This, like the higher percentage of low-wage/low-hour jobs indicated by the JQ-Instant from mid-year 2019 to date (and despite the improvement in the JQI at year-end), may negatively impact aggregate demand in the economy - and offset to the month-to-month growth in the number of new jobs reported in this month's print."

For a new explanatory video on the JQI, please see: http://www.vimeo.com/jqi

This news release presents data from the most recent JQI reading calculated through the month immediately prior to the month covered by this release. The JQI assesses job quality in the United States by measuring desirable higher-wage/higher-hour jobs versus lower-wage/lower-hour jobs. The JQI offers a near-real time analytical tool to policymakers, researchers and financial market participants with relevance to a variety of trends in the economy at large. The JQI analyzes a representative sample of the economy using production and non-supervisory job (P&NS) data from 180 different industry groups spanning across all 20 super-sectors into which the BLS groups establishments. The principal data utilized is contained in the Current Employment Survey (CES, also often referred to as the establishment survey) P&NS data on average weekly hours, average hourly wage and total employment for each given industry group (seasonally adjusted, in all cases). The JQI is updated on a monthly basis contemporaneously with the release of new CES data from the BLS.

The JQ-Instant reading is for the month covered by this release and has implications for the likely direction of the JQI itself in future months. As the JQI is reported as a three-month rolling average of actual monthly readings, significant imbalances (readings varying from an even distribution between high and low quality jobs) in the JQ-Instant results would suggest future JQI readings moving in the direction of the dominant side of such distribution.

The U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index (patent pending) is a joint development of the Program on the Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets at the Jack G. Clarke Institute of Cornell Law School, the University of Missouri Kansas City Department of Economics, the Coalition for a Prosperous America, and the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity.

For more information, and to read the full report, visit https://www.jobqualityindex.com/.

©2020 JQI IP Holdings LLC.] "Private Sector Job Quality Index" and "JQI" are registered trademarks of JQI IP Holdings LLC. The Private Sector Job Quality Index is patent pending, application number US 62/900,923. Cornell logo and Cornell Law School and Jack G. Clarke Program names and references used with permission.

SOURCE U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index