Another month, another modest jobs report from the Department of Labor. We added 195,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate continues to hover at 7.6 percent. But, 195,000 jobs is 195,000 jobs, and the economy continues its slow crawl back.
“The unemployment rate for adult women (6.8 percent) edged up in June,” according to the report, “while the rates for adult men (7.0 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent), whites (6.6 percent), blacks (13.7 percent), and Hispanics (9.1 percent) showed little or no change.”
One thing that did change for the worse was the transit and ground passenger transportation subsector, which lost 5,700 jobs last month. This sector is classified as everything from urban transit systems to taxis and school buses — everything that makes a city tick.
I’m not running through the streets screaming that the MTA is doomed right now, because that’s not the case. But it is worth noting — especially in the wake of the BART strike — that the transit sector lost nearly 6,000 jobs in June alone. There’s not enough detailed data from the Labor Department to deduce why exactly, but perhaps it would make sound business sense for the government to invest more in smarter transportation infrastructure, like buses and trains and sensible transit options. It creates jobs in the construction and transit sector, and gives lower-income Americans better access to jobs.
The Equity Factor is made possible with the support of the Surdna Foundation.
Bill Bradley is a writer and reporter living in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Deadspin, GQ, and Vanity Fair, among others.
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