Jobs
A mere 32,000 jobs were added last month. The Wall Street bookmakers expected over 220,000 new jobs, and, because of their tremendous error, the stock market is plunging today (well, that combined with record high oil prices).
However, the White House flacks are trying to say that this news is excellent. They claim that unemployment is actually down, though they use the household survey, not the business survey--they routinely use whichever measure looks more favorable for them (something that no other administration in my memory has done).
In addition to July's lackluster growth, the numbers from the previous two months have been revised downward.
Basically, any job growth per month lower than 120,000 jobs isn't good. And, if the president wanted to hit his mark for the number of jobs he claimed the economy would add this year, the numbers needed to be in excess of 300,000 new jobs each month. That was the justification for his latest bullshit tax cut.
Brad DeLong knows far more about this sort of thing than I do, so you might want to check him out.
I don't think that 32,000 jobs added in a month even keeps pace with the country's population growth--so, effectively, that means that overall unemployment actually increased. The "official" unemployment count, of course, might not reflect that, because it doesn't count people whose unemployment benefits have run out or those who have simply stopped looking for work. Also, our gigantic prison population continues to mask true unemployment.
Ah, what cheery Friday news!
A mere 32,000 jobs were added last month. The Wall Street bookmakers expected over 220,000 new jobs, and, because of their tremendous error, the stock market is plunging today (well, that combined with record high oil prices).
However, the White House flacks are trying to say that this news is excellent. They claim that unemployment is actually down, though they use the household survey, not the business survey--they routinely use whichever measure looks more favorable for them (something that no other administration in my memory has done).
In addition to July's lackluster growth, the numbers from the previous two months have been revised downward.
Basically, any job growth per month lower than 120,000 jobs isn't good. And, if the president wanted to hit his mark for the number of jobs he claimed the economy would add this year, the numbers needed to be in excess of 300,000 new jobs each month. That was the justification for his latest bullshit tax cut.
Brad DeLong knows far more about this sort of thing than I do, so you might want to check him out.
I don't think that 32,000 jobs added in a month even keeps pace with the country's population growth--so, effectively, that means that overall unemployment actually increased. The "official" unemployment count, of course, might not reflect that, because it doesn't count people whose unemployment benefits have run out or those who have simply stopped looking for work. Also, our gigantic prison population continues to mask true unemployment.
Ah, what cheery Friday news!
posted by Jude at 10:48 AM
