A Labor-less Labor Day?

Most people consider Labor Day the end of summer. In many ways it truly is. It usually punctuates a summer of fun.

As of Labor Day, all the Summer camps are usually shut down. In the Midwest and other areas of the country, boating activities are slowed as harbor operations get ready for hauling boats out for Fall storage. Amusement parks, especially in the colder areas of the country, scale back to weekends-only. Public beaches and pools are typically closed to recreation; at least during the week.

With all of these operations being shutdown, many will find themselves out of work; starting with the week prior to Labor Day. For this reason, this Labor Day might signal one of the most jobless in decades. Unlike other Labor Days, the people who will be let go this year are going to enter a really tough job market. It won't be easy to find a job to replace their lost summertime work. Fortunately for our economy, many will just go back to college; but, many won't.

I think you can expect the unemployment rates to rise in both September and October with all those summer jobs coming to an end. This fact, alone, may be singularly responsible for unemployment rates jumping to 10 percent or higher when those month-prior reports come out in both October and November.