Peter Schiff: Government jobs report is a work of fiction

Last week, the United States Labor Department reported that the nonfarm payrolls rose 211,000 last month. This data suggest that the Federal Reserve will definitely increase interest rates next week during its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). Not so fast, says Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital.

Speaking in an interview with Yahoo! Finance, Schiff explained that the numbers are a mirage, false and a work of fiction. With slowing consumer spending, tepid growth in the services industry and a contracting in manufacturing, Schiff says there is no way the jobs picture can be as rosy as the federal government is portraying the thing.

“We lost manufacturing jobs,” he told the online news outlet. “Manufacturing is in a recession here in the United States,” he said, offering as evidence this week’s manufacturing and service sector ISM numbers as particularly weak.”

He added that part-time shift work has taken over full-time employment, and this is where much of the jobs gains have shifted to. Schiff alluded to the increase in part-time workers, which saw the biggest gain since September 2012, rising by 319,000 to 6.1 million in November. Ultimately, says Schiff, those who can’t find full-time work are taking part-time jobs.

The author of “Crash Proof” and “How an Economy Grows” said that investors should put their money in gold, despite its underperformance over the past couple of months. He thinks it will have a stellar 2016 because of the notion that the Fed will only gradually raise rates.