Like most of you I’m still trying to make sense of yesterday’s jobs report from the BLS — Bureau of Labor Statistics… They’re contradictory, something just doesn’t smell right about them but, I can’t put my finger on what it is. I’m not inclined to believe the conspiracy theories simple because as James Sherk explains […]
Unemployment
Awful: U.S. Added 96,000 Jobs in August; Unemployment Rate Fell to 8.1%
From MarketWatch: Nonfarm payrolls grew by a seasonally adjusted 96,000 in August, well below estimates and down from a respectable 141,000 jobs in July. The payrolls growth came in weaker than the 125,000 increase expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch. The nation’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 8.1%, down from 8.3% in July, […]
Every State That Elected A Republican Governor in 2010 Saw Unemployment Drop
I saw this over the weekend and thought I’d share this morning… According to an Examiner.com analysis, the 17 states that elected a Republican Governors in 2010 hes seen unemployment drop at an average of 1.35% — well ahead of the national average of .9%. Here is how much the unemployment has rate declined in […]
Awful: Unemployment Remains At 8.2% in June; Just 80,000 Jobs Added
From MarketWatch: The U.S. created just 80,000 jobs in June as hiring slowed dramatically in the second quarter, confirming that the economy has hit another rough patch. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.2%, the Labor Department said Friday. The disappointing employment report adds to fresh worries about the U.S. economy at a time when […]
Jobless Rate Falls to 8.9% as 192K Jobs Added
Today’s jobless report is a good news bad news thing, first the good news… From Bloomberg: U.S. employers added 192,000 workers in February, amid an improving economy and more seasonable weather, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly declined to 8.9 percent, the lowest level since April 2009. So what’s the bad news? In short the primary […]
Video: The Truth About Our Jobs Crisis
The folks over at Bankrupting America have produced a video and infographic that really puts our current jobs crisis in perspective: I really can’t add anything here other than pointing you to a rather chilling analysis from Investor’s Business Daily: U.S. Won’t Recover Lost Jobs Until March 2020 At Current Pace. This election is probably […]
U.S. Economy Loses 95,000 Jobs in September, Unemployment Remains at 9.6%
Stagnation… That’s really the only way to describe today’s jobs report. The U.S. economy shed 95,000 more jobs last month and the number of underemployed grew by 612,000, and now stands at 9.5 million people: WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The U.S. economy lost 95,000 nonfarm jobs in September as local and state governments shed positions at […]
CNBC: Economy Caught in Depression, Not Recession
I be the first one to admit I’m a pessimist on the economy, but not even I’m this pessimistic: Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday. Writing in his daily briefing to […]
Weekly Initial Jobless Claims Rise… Unexpectedly… Yet Again…
This is getting silly, it seems like every time new jobless claims rise the media uses words like “unexpected’ or “surprising” to describe the news… There’s nothing surprising or unexpected about this week’s jobless report, not after reports on plunging new home sales in May, and the sharp drop in consumer confidence. Suffices to say […]
Initial Jobless Claims Rise… Unexpectedly… Again
Here we go again, another week and another, um, “unexpected” rise in initial jobless claims: The number of new claims for unemployment benefits jumped unexpectedly last week as heavy snows caused layoffs to rise. In addition, many state agencies in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions that process the claims were closed due to the […]
New Jobless Claims Rise… Unexpectedly… Again…
Here we go again… another week, another “unexpected” rise in new jobless claims: The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 31,000 to 473,000, the Labor Department […]
Unemployment Rate Drops to 9.7%
I was going to post this yesterday, but there was something about the numbers that just didn’t make sense to me so I decided to hold off until I could dig through the report. Anyway, the Associated Press got to use it’s favorite adverb, “unexpectedly“, again today: The job market is lurching toward improvement. It […]
First-time Jobless Claims Rise Unexpectedly… Again
This is getting ridiculous, and as predictable as sunrise… Just how many times can new jobless claims rise “unexpectedly” before the Associated Press realizes there’s nothing unexpected about it: The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce. The […]
Train Wreck: Retail Sales Fall, Jobless Claims Rise, Foreclosures set Record and the Dollar Crisis
Whew, I can’t believe I got all that in headline! Anyone who has read this blog for any period of time knows I’m a pessimist on the economy, in short I don’t see any reason to be hopeful: Retail sales unexpectedly fell in December, leaving 2009 with the biggest yearly drop on record and highlighting […]
December Unemployment Holds Steady at 10 Percent
I’m looking for good news in the December Jobs Report, but I can’t find any… From Reuters: U.S. employers cut 85,000 jobs in December, confounding expectations the labor market was finally stabilizing and piling pressure on President Barack Obama to spur job growth. Unemployment, which held steady at 10 percent, remains the Achilles heel of […]