A Spectacular Jobs Report
When you consider that everyone assumed the November Jobs Report would be dismal this month due to the affects of Hurricane Sandy (dismal being under net 50,000 jobs being created accompanied by an increase in unemployment), indeed, the weekly unemployment figures spiked in mid-November due to Sandy-related job loss, the following is just a wonderful report:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. economy added 146,000 jobs in November, nearly double the projections. What’s more, the overall unemployment rate dropped to 7.7%, its lowest point in four years.
This is obviously because the conservatives won the election and Obama is no longer president.
A Republican will soon be along to tell us why this is really terrible news.
See? Tax cuts work!
This is clearly better than the alternative of a worse report. But for the last two years the graphic is actually the picture of a flat jobless recovery, and inability of consumers to expand buying power, both prolonged by two unnecessary years of income inequality under the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Don’t take my word for it, ask the Congressional Research Service. The meaningful upward job curve starts when the Bush tax cuts expire.
146,000 jobs look good at first sight, but it may not even keep up with population growth (so that the jobless rate stays the same). Also, 350,000 people left the labor force, which is ridiculously high and it artificially deflates the jobless rate. Right now, the labor force participation rate is at a 30 year low, so the labor situation is so depressing that people are not even looking for jobs. And the number of people suffering from long term unemployment is at a post-depression high. So the employment situation is not as rosy as you think.
Also, September and October were revised downward by about 46,000 jobs.
is this adjusted for all season the retail jobs that pop up this time of year?
V,
Yes. Same thing with agricultural jobs during the farming season.
haha thanks. also thanks for reading that “sentence” i wrote up there and knowing what i was asking. Good lord i need to learn to type slower.