Taking another peek beneath the only headline that vacuum tubes and algos care about, namely the headline establishment survey print, reveals another mockery of a "recovery", because in addition to the farce that 1 million Americans were added to the "not in labor force" number, a breakdown of jobs added by age group reveals more of the same. Namely, in the one most important age group for jobs, those workers aged 25-54 which represent the bulk of the US labor force and are also the best and most productive group, the total number of jobs tumbled from 95,360K to 95,151K, a drop of 209K!

But wait, because it wasn't just the most important age group bucket: it was all younger workers who got the shaft: jobs in the 16-19 age group dropped by 24K, while those in the 20-24 age group declined by another 26K, which means that in the "young" workers category, those under 55, some 259K jobs were lost.

So did anyone gain jobs in April? Why yes: according to the establishment survey, the only beneficiary of whatever this "recovery" is, were workers aged 55-69, who gained 174K jobs.

In fact, while the total number of jobs lost since the great depression may have been recovered, looking at this data set broken down by age groups reveals something very different: a recovery which continues to favor the old, those 55 and older, at the expense of the young, or those below 55, who still have 2.8 million jobs to go before recouping losses.

Source: BLS