Help me if I'm not understanding this: 1) there need to be around 250k new jobs each month to make up the difference b/w new people entering and old people leaving the work force? 2) there were *only* 96k jobs last month, so it's a net loss? 3) Unemployment dropped to 8.1% because the article is using the U3 number, but Denny's saying the U6 number (which iirc was around 20-25%) went up because people "gave up" looking for work? If the answers to those were "yes", can someone help me understand what measures the present administration/Congress is taking to change those, if they were surprised by these numbers, and if the vision pitched by the President et al this week will change these somehow?
Brian, there's nothing the government can do. The Fed will push for a QE3, but it won't work any better than the first two. The positive job growth over the past 29 months were the recovery. Now we're going back into recession. It's going to get worse before it gets better. See what Volcker had to do with interest rates to squeeze inflation out of the economy from 81-84; we're going to see a repeat over the next few years. We have been monetizing our debt and have been destroying the savings of people by massively devaluing the dollar.
IF there was (from either party) a thought that there'd be massive cuts to the government spending to reduce the budget (and/or a tax raise to make up some of the deficit, or both) would that have an effect on either ability to maintain low borrowing rates or "confidence" that would grow business (and thus jobs)? And didn't we have a debt ceiling somewhere?
Businesses are sitting on hordes of cash and not hiring right now because they don't know what the future holds. Productivity numbers are extremely high; there's no slack left in the rope. If Romney is elected, it will be a signal that we're going back down toward government expenditures being roughly 20% of GDP. You'd see huge hiring figures. If Obama is re-elected, then we're heading toward a future that looks more like Sweden and businesses will adjust accordingly.
By the way, if the labor participation rate were the same as it was on January 20, 2009, the U3 rate would be 11.2%. That is 3.1 percentage points or 38% higher than the released data show. Words can't express the kind of damage that has been done to the economy since TARP by well-meaning bureaucrats.
Holy shit. It just keeps getting worse as I read more of this report from the BLS. That's a downgrade of 19,000 jobs, or almost 30% for June and 22,000 jobs, or over 13% for July. For the record, I now have real concerns about the BLS. For the past couple of years, they have consistently adjusted downward the job figures for previous months. It defies data error. If it were accidental, there would be some months when it went upward and some when it went downward. It demonstrated either an error in the way the figures are gathered, or more likely, they are massaging the data to put the best face on them. The BLS is supposed to be non-partisan. There's something rotten in Denmark.
Interesting that while 96k jobs were "created" in August, that the overall labor population rate declined by ~110k. Since when is a net loss of those working a good thing? Thought this was worth noting as well, given the "we inherited a mess/just give us more time" begging we saw at the DNC.
Nonsense. Our workforce is currently retiring at a rate higher than our rate of population growth. Even more would retire right now if the financial sector hadn't stolen their homes and pensions.
LOL. If there were some grand collusion among businesses to horde cash to control who gets elected, it sure is a sign they're not happy with Obama. Even though big business paid heavily for Obama's first campaign.
Agreed. Big business controls the economy in order to control government in order to control the economy to their advantage. President Eisenhower warned the country of this very real conspiracy back in...oh, that's right, before you were born. I'm surprised your parents didn't tell you about this crucial fact.
Right as he was warning us that an evil complex was taking over the country, you poofed into existence?
of course it's Congress that is in charge of the purse strings of the country, not the POTUS. The President can make suggestions on what they do, and of course has the power of the veto, but ultimately it's up to them to act. For example, rather then utilizing $ already raised through gas taxes for needed infrastructure job bills that would put people back to work and raise the tax base to help balance the budget as has always been done, this Congress has instead focused on trying to overturn The Affordable Health Care Act and further restricting access to abortions/redefine rape. Sweet eh? judging from their actions (& lack there of), it's almost like the plan has been to tank the economy. Politics over country STOMP
I'm not trying to be snarky, but whatever happened to all those jobs created by "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects that the stimulus paid for? And I pray frequently that my representatives overturn PPACA, because it's one of the more damaging/stupid things Congress has done in recent memory, including voting to pay for a decade of dual wars and voting to extend tax cuts when you're almost doubling spending.
Here in Beautiful Central Oregon they put numerous unemployed folks back to work adding another lane to Hwy 97 between Lava Butte and Sunriver, building 2 deer/elk underpasses, repairing roads all over the place, all of which has also probably prevented about a dozen fatalities we would have had otherwise. I believe some also is going to construction of bike lanes as we are quickly becoming the national center for bike racing and touring.
