Have a happy Easter, Passover, whatever.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | February | 2017 | 1,125,400 | |
| December | 2017 | 1,143,800 | ||
| January | 2018 | 1,128,000 | ||
| February | 2018 | 1,128,900 | 3,500 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | February | 2017 | 1,131,500 | |
| December | 2017 | 1,137,100 | ||
| January | 2018 | 1,135,900 | ||
| February | 2018 | 1,135,700 | 4,200 | |
| Change from Jan-18 to Feb-18 | -200 |
Regarding the December 2017 post, that didn't take long. In other news, looks like December 2017 seasonally adjusted is higher than any point since I started this blog.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | January | 2017 | 1,125,500 | |
| November | 2017 | 1,138,500 | ||
| December | 2017 | 1,143,300 | ||
| January | 2018 | 1,127,700 | 2,200 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | January | 2017 | 1,132,500 | |
| November | 2017 | 1,135,800 | ||
| December | 2017 | 1,136,600 | ||
| January | 2018 | 1,135,500 | 3,000 | |
| Change from Dec-17 to Jan-18 | -1,100 |
My New Years resolution is more timely updates. Should have fallen off the wagon by March.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | December | 2016 | 1,130,500 | |
| October | 2017 | 1,130,500 | ||
| November | 2017 | 1,130,100 | ||
| December | 2017 | 1,133,600 | 3,100 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | December | 2016 | 1,126,100 | |
| October | 2017 | 1,128,000 | ||
| November | 2017 | 1,127,600 | ||
| December | 2017 | 1,128,200 | 2,100 | |
| Change from Nov-17 to Dec-17 | 600 |
Have a happy New Year. Also, Nando, thanks for everything. I don't think people realize the amount of work that goes into maintaining a blog. The other thing you didn't mention is the amount of invective hurled at you personally in the early days.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | November | 2016 | 1,124,700 | |
| September | 2017 | 1,123,800 | ||
| October | 2017 | 1,130,500 | ||
| November | 2017 | 1,131,600 | 6,900 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | November | 2016 | 1,122,500 | |
| September | 2017 | 1,127,700 | ||
| October | 2017 | 1,128,100 | ||
| November | 2017 | 1,128,700 | 6,200 | |
| Change from Oct-17 to Nov-17 | 600 |
Greetings, scam fans. There's little news on the legal employment front, but then there never is. Seriously, look back at this post in November 2020 and leave a comment if it's changed by more than a few thousand. I'll wait.
In school news, Valparaiso's "Board voted to suspend admission of a first-year law school class in Valparaiso, Indiana for the fall of 2018" while it searches for sunnier climes. May I suggest Chile? OTLSS did a good write-up here.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | October | 2017 | 1,125,100 | |
| August | 2018 | 1,129,300 | ||
| September | 2018 | 1,123,900 | ||
| October | 2018 | 1,128,500 | 3,400 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | October | 2017 | 1,122,700 | |
| August | 2018 | 1,126,700 | ||
| September | 2018 | 1,127,300 | ||
| October | 2018 | 1,126,200 | 3,500 | |
| Change from Sep-18 to Oct-18 | -1,100 |
Happy November.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | September | 2017 | 1,117,700 | |
| July | 2018 | 1,137,200 | ||
| August | 2018 | 1,130,200 | ||
| September | 2018 | 1,125,000 | 7,300 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | September | 2017 | 1,121,300 | |
| July | 2018 | 1,127,000 | ||
| August | 2018 | 1,127,700 | ||
| September | 2018 | 1,128,600 | 7,300 | |
| Change from Aug-18 to Sep-18 | 900 |
If I wait any longer it will be November.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | August | 2016 | 1,124,400 | |
| June | 2017 | 1,140,300 | ||
| July | 2017 | 1,136,400 | ||
| August | 2017 | 1,128,900 | 4,500 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | August | 2016 | 1,121,800 | |
| June | 2017 | 1,130,700 | ||
| July | 2017 | 1,126,200 | ||
| August | 2017 | 1,126,300 | 4,500 | |
| Change from Jul-17 to Aug-17 | 100 |
Happy August. I didn't want to waste one keystroke on Today's Law Degree Takes on a Broader Meaning but I'm stewing.
At the heart of the shift is a term used by schools known as "JD Advantage," which refers to a job that doesn't require a law degree but where a J.D. is advantageous in the eyes of an employer. Such jobs include compliance officers, paralegals, consultants and journalists.
Organizations that monitor law school performance have measured an uptick in this area of employment: the proportion of law school graduates obtaining JD advantage jobs has steadily increased — from 8 to 14 percent — since 2007.
These people NEVER quit; they lie awake thinking of ways to scam. I thought JD Advantage™ would wither from derision, but instead it is becoming the new normal. As a stylistic matter, note how Bloomberg has the term in quotes before giving it a less conspicuous treatment in the next paragraph.
To any college student — Lordy, I hope there are some — reading this: if your employer thinks it is helpful for you to have a JD then let them pay for it.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | July | 2016 | 1,131,500 | |
| May | 2017 | 1,125,700 | ||
| June | 2017 | 1,140,400 | ||
| July | 2017 | 1,136,900 | 5,400 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | July | 2016 | 1,121,400 | |
| May | 2017 | 1,128,100 | ||
| June | 2017 | 1,130,700 | ||
| July | 2017 | 1,126,400 | 5,000 | |
| Change from Jun-17 to Jul-17 | -4,300 |
This was both a good month and a good year. Now, if only a few dozen more schools would close …
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | June | 2016 | 1,129,000 | |
| April | 2017 | 1,121,400 | ||
| May | 2017 | 1,125,900 | ||
| June | 2017 | 1,140,100 | 11,100 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | June | 2016 | 1,120,800 | |
| April | 2017 | 1,125,900 | ||
| May | 2017 | 1,128,800 | ||
| June | 2017 | 1,130,800 | 10,000 | |
| Change from May-17 to Jun-17 | 2,000 |
It's becoming unrealistic for me to keep this blog going. I'll see if I can manage once a month.
First, it makes no sense to continue baying into the ether. Smart students already avoid law school. To quote Paul Campos:
These percentages are even more stark when converted into raw numbers. In 2010, just under 36,000 people with LSAT scores of 160+ applied for fall admission. This year, that number is going to be 14,000. This is a 61% decline (law school applications as a whole are down 39% over that time).
The remainder mostly shouldn't be going to law school, yet the U.S. Government is willing to lend them unlimited funds and the academy is happy to take it. I've accepted there's nothing neither I nor anyone else can do about that. Sure, there will be some random school closures, but circa 2017 the scam is alive and well. If anything, things have gotten worse; back in the day a successful applicant had a good chance of passing the bar.
The problem in focusing on law school is losing sight of the big picture. Last November a hostile government helped — the other party did itself no favor — elect the most incompetent, self-serving, corrupt candidate in history. His party, which looks to him as a means to an end, is worse. Here's a good example: GOP rep says he's fine with more people dying under Trumpcare as long as it saves money. Your new government, ladies and gentlemen. Puts law school in perspective, doesn't it?
If you haven't bothered with Twitter then I urge you in the strongest possible terms to take a look. Think of it as 2009-era scamblogging, with writers trying to reach a disbelieving public while facing a well-organized disinformation effort. You don't need to sign up. The following should get you started.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | May | 2016 | 1,116,900 | |
| March | 2017 | 1,118,700 | ||
| April | 2017 | 1,121,600 | ||
| May | 2017 | 1,124,800 | 7,900 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | May | 2016 | 1,120,100 | |
| March | 2017 | 1,123,300 | ||
| April | 2017 | 1,125,700 | ||
| May | 2017 | 1,127,700 | 7,600 | |
| Change from Apr-17 to May-17 | 2,000 |
April was a good month. Not for legal employment, mind you, but for toilets and their administrators falling like dominoes.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | April | 2016 | 1,114,500 | |
| February | 2017 | 1,118,000 | ||
| March | 2017 | 1,118,400 | ||
| April | 2017 | 1,120,200 | 5,700 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | April | 2016 | 1,119,300 | |
| February | 2017 | 1,123,700 | ||
| March | 2017 | 1,123,000 | ||
| April | 2017 | 1,124,100 | 4,800 | |
| Change from Mar-17 to Apr-17 | 1,100 |
Meh.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | March | 2016 | 1,115,600 | |
| January | 2017 | 1,118,800 | ||
| February | 2017 | 1,117,900 | ||
| March | 2017 | 1,117,200 | 1,600 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | March | 2016 | 1,119,600 | |
| January | 2017 | 1,125,800 | ||
| February | 2017 | 1,123,300 | ||
| March | 2017 | 1,121,800 | 2,200 | |
| Change from Feb-17 to Mar-17 | -1,500 |
So much material to post, so little motivation.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | February | 2016 | 1,112,500 | |
| December | 2016 | 1,130,500 | ||
| January | 2017 | 1,119,200 | ||
| February | 2017 | 1,119,200 | 6,700 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | February | 2016 | 1,119,100 | |
| December | 2016 | 1,126,100 | ||
| January | 2017 | 1,126,400 | ||
| February | 2017 | 1,125,100 | 6,000 | |
| Change from Jan-17 to Feb-17 | -1,300 |
I titled this blog after I graduated law school and was subsequently unable to reconcile a so-called profession's obsession with prestige with its patent scumminess. Scummy practitioners who are miserable human beings. A scummy academy that has driven the best and brightest students away, even as it encourages mediocre ones to matriculate and throw away their life. A scummy accreditor that needs no further comment. A scummy judiciary that blames the victims, aka "sophisticated consumers."
A while ago I reached a point where I not only lost interest in blogging, but even reading other scamblogs I've followed for years.
Anyhow, I popped into TTR recently and saw that Charlotte School of Law is holding a food drive. For its own students. The tl;dr version is the Dept of Education finally put the screws to a law school and cut off Federal loans, something it should have begun in the Joan King era.
Reportedly, the DoE offered to extend loans for the spring semester if the school agreed to shut down, but scumminess won the day. Nando and his commenters have already said all that needs to be, so I'll quit here.
Please give generously. CSL Students' Living Expenses
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | January | 2016 | 1,111,000 | |
| November | 2016 | 1,124,700 | ||
| December | 2016 | 1,130,400 | ||
| January | 2017 | 1,117,400 | 6,400 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | January | 2016 | 1,119,400 | |
| November | 2016 | 1,122,500 | ||
| December | 2016 | 1,125,800 | ||
| January | 2017 | 1,124,900 | 5,500 | |
| Change from Dec-16 to Jan-17 | -900 |
I'm obviously on top of things.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | December | 2015 | 1,130,000 | |
| October | 2016 | 1,128,200 | ||
| November | 2016 | 1,127,700 | ||
| December | 2016 | 1,131,900 | 1,900 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | December | 2015 | 1,124,200 | |
| October | 2016 | 1,126,100 | ||
| November | 2016 | 1,125,600 | ||
| December | 2016 | 1,127,600 | 3,400 | |
| Change from Nov-16 to Dec-16 | 2,000 |
If I'm inspired, and I probably won't be, I'll comment on this.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | November | 2015 | 1,126,400 | |
| September | 2016 | 1,121,100 | ||
| October | 2016 | 1,127,300 | ||
| November | 2016 | 1,127,300 | 900 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | November | 2015 | 1,123,800 | |
| September | 2016 | 1,124,900 | ||
| October | 2016 | 1,125,100 | ||
| November | 2016 | 1,124,600 | 800 | |
| Change from Oct-16 to Nov-16 | -500 |
One benefit to being dilatory a lazy POS is that I can watch events unfold and write about them at my leisure. Sometimes I'll have a theme for a post, start a draft, and it will be immediately obviated by the news.
Three things have happened of late.
Just so we're clear, Indiana Tech is the harbinger of nothing. The university already absorbed the substantial sunk cost of starting the school and could have limped along, augmented by offering undergraduate courses, distance learning, and luring foreign students. I've previously opined that as long as law schools keep their expenses in line with revenue — scamsizing™ as it were — they are viable indefinitely. Uncle Sam has made the academy immune to market forces and using business terms and concepts to discuss it is obfuscation. I truly believe that the State of Indiana told the university board to shitcan the school, with this as the last straw. Basically, one well-connected individual contacted one well-connected board member, maybe even in person(!), and that was all it took.
I'm not speculating; I've seen this done. The government has enough harassment tools to obtain cooperation from anyone.
When I was in law skool a long time ago I had a course on business entities. The professor, who was a partner at a large firm, described states falling over themselves to emulate Delaware law as a race-to-the-bottom. He predicted that what the legislatures gave, the courts would take back.
Fast forward to about 2013 and the inception of another race to the bottom, this time with academic credentials of admitted students. As my professor could have predicted, the state bars are digging in. Even doing nothing — leaving the exam and passing score static — is a rational option. The end result is was Indiana Tech.
That brings me to Trump. If you'd asked me last month about the 75% bar-passage requirement to be voted on February 2017 by the ABA's House of Delegates (is that presTTTigious or what?), I'd have speculated a watered-down version would be enacted. Given the overwrought reaction to Trump's election — recounts pending as I type this — I now think no effin' way. Diversity, you know?
Seriously, no sooner had the votes been counted then TTTexas legislators began pushing for yet another school! If I may quote, "[E]verybody has a law school." Does that sound like someone who's worried about the school ultimately being accredited?
Oh, and don't look for debt relief, either. Ever.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | October | 2015 | 1,125,400 | |
| August | 2016 | 1,128,000 | ||
| September | 2016 | 1,121,800 | ||
| October | 2016 | 1,127,500 | 2,100 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | October | 2015 | 1,123,800 | |
| August | 2016 | 1,125,100 | ||
| September | 2016 | 1,125,400 | ||
| October | 2016 | 1,125,300 | 1,500 | |
| Change from Sep-16 to Oct-16 | -100 |
Only news of late is a slight rise in the average MBE score. There is speculation about the cause, but given the legal academy's penchant both for kicking the can down the road and general despicableness it likely involved shitcanning the same nitwits the school welcomed with open arms two years earlier. We'll see when they publish attrition rates and the number of first-time test takers for each school.
One commenter suggested the median score didn't change and that the increase is due to the top half of the median scoring higher while the water heads continue to flail. Again, we'll see.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | August | 2015 | 1,121,500 | |
| June | 2016 | 1,133,300 | ||
| July | 2016 | 1,134,700 | ||
| August | 2016 | 1,128,400 | 6,900 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | August | 2015 | 1,118,600 | |
| June | 2016 | 1,124,000 | ||
| July | 2016 | 1,125,000 | ||
| August | 2016 | 1,125,000 | 6,400 | |
| Change from Jul-16 to Aug-16 | 0 |
I'm really enjoying the overwrought debate over the ABA's proposed 75% rule and its impact on diversity. I predict the warring sides will study the issue until it goes away, ignoring the debt elephant in the room.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | July | 2015 | 1,128,000 | |
| May | 2016 | 1,121,300 | ||
| June | 2016 | 1,134,700 | ||
| July | 2016 | 1,133,700 | 5,700 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | July | 2015 | 1,118,900 | |
| May | 2016 | 1,124,200 | ||
| June | 2016 | 1,124,100 | ||
| July | 2016 | 1,123,900 | 5,000 | |
| Change from Jun-16 to Jul-16 | -200 |
One of these years, when I'm less lazy, I'll modify my table to show figures from further back. The industry is an inert blob that eats people but stays the same size.
In other news …
A little while ago I wrote about the Feds bringing down the hammer on an accreditation agency and openly wishing they'd do the same to the ABA. Well, they did! Sort of; it's an administrative wrist slap. Things should get more interesting in the future as the ABA reiterates its commitment to educational quality, even as some of its accreditees experience wholesale bar exam failure.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm
| Not seasonally adjusted | June | 2015 | 1,128,300 | |
| April | 2016 | 1,118,800 | ||
| May | 2016 | 1,120,800 | ||
| June | 2016 | 1,134,400 | 6,100 | |
| Seasonally adjusted | June | 2015 | 1,119,200 | |
| April | 2016 | 1,123,400 | ||
| May | 2016 | 1,123,900 | ||
| June | 2016 | 1,124,000 | 4,800 | |
| Change from May-16 to Jun-16 | 100 |
