That’s not the way it works... There are hundreds of thousands of people hired and fired all the time (employment churn). The NFP number is the “net” of the hirings and firings for the month. This month was +157K, both November and December were revised upward sharply. The economy is not “strong” but it is improving. Unfortunately a lot of people here just simply don’t want to see it.
“That’s not the way it works..”
Happy days are here again, thanks to Obama!
How it worked until I noticed Thursday reports didn’t seem to be available a few weeks ago, was that ABCCBSCNNNBCFOX/AP would report every Thursday morning that 350-something thousand NEW applications for unemployment were filed in the last week.
How do YOU remember it?
The economic improvement at best could be described as tepid. It still stinks compared to normal. The decline in unemployment in the last three years is almost entirely due to the number of people who have simply given up trying to find work and gone on the permanent dole, and the markets are being mostly fueled by Ben Bernanke’s Magical Money Making Machine.
Even during the Great Depression, there were periods of minor growth. The truth is that America and most of the world is stuck in an ongoing Little Depression.
Seriously? The population grows 200,000+ per month. We are not even keeping up with population growth. We are stuck in a permanent bottom. We fell, and we are not getting up.
“The economy is not “strong” but it is improving. Unfortunately a lot of people here just simply don’t want to see it.”
Could you please elaborate. By what metric do you consider the economy improving?
GDP? - it just shrunk, not improving
Unemployment? - Static at best,but just creeped up a notch.
Labor force participation? (IMHO the most devastating and long lasting metric) - it keeps going down, down, down!
Debt vs GDP? - We’re in third world territory
The only bright spot in the economy is housing sales. But isn’t that how we got into this mess in the first place? Obama’s ‘Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’ has codified its new rules, and left the barn door wiiiide open. No down payment or credit check required to get a home loan (and all of the sudden the federal government is underwriting 9 out of 10 loans, so there is no risk in not running a credit check). Also, employment is not required (welfare payments count as ‘documented income’). The only restriction was a ban on interest only loans...except Fanniue and Freddie are exempt for 7 years. So to put it bluntly, the housing sector is being propped up by the imaginary creditworthiness of the federal government. Of course this is causing a bubble, which will pop.
So I have to ask - exactly how is the economy improving?
“118 k fewer jobs created in Jan 2013 than Jan 2012.
The rate of year over year job growth has fallen from 1.54% in 2012 to 1.37% in 2013.
In no way, shape, or form, is that improving.”
I agree...