Gains in U.S. Overtime, Labor Force Offer ‘Crumbs of Comfort’

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAOTqm7wo0hY&refer=home

By Shobhana Chandra and Bob Willis

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- The number of overtime hours worked in the U.S. rose in April for the first time since 2007 and the labor force jumped by the most since the recession began, signs that the slump in the job market is easing.

Average weekly overtime hours at factories increased to 2.7 from 2.6 the month before, and 683,000 people joined the workforce, the biggest gain since November 2007, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington.

Companies “add overtime, then contract workers, and then they’ll add to their own permanent payrolls again,” Tig Gilliam, chief executive officer of Adecco Group North America, a New York-based unit of the largest temporary employer in the world, said in an interview. Gilliam called the increase in overtime and expanding labor force “good signals.”

The gain in overtime hours, which typically precedes a pickup in hiring, and the return of more Americans to the labor force in hopes of getting work provide the latest evidence that the worst economic slump in at least half a century is abating. Still, economists predict the jobless rate will keep rising and wages may stay depressed even after a recovery begins.

The addition of workers to the labor force drove up the so- called participation rate to 65.8 percent in April from 65.5 percent, today’s report showed. Household employment rose by 120,000, the first gain since April 2008.

“There are a couple of crumbs of comfort,” said Ian Morris, chief U.S. economist at HSBC Securities USA Inc. in New York. Overall, he said, the report is “sobering.”

Jobless Rate

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