Posted on 02/06/2015 5:42:37 AM PST by mykroar
The unemployment rate was 5.7%, according to figures released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department, slightly higher than the December rate as more Americans re-entered the work force.
Economists had predicted 234,000 new jobs last month and that the unemployment rate would hold steady at 5.6%.
Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 0.5% in January, a turnaround from December, when wages fell by 5 cents to $24.57. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have risen by just 1.7%, well below the 3% rate economists say is healthy.
The labor force participation rate rose by 0.2% to 62.9%.
While labor markets appear to be healing based on the steady decline in the headline unemployment rate, other labor market indicators suggest a slower recovery for many U.S. workers.
For instance, average hourly wages have been essentially stagnant for months, a factor that has kept inflation running well below the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%. Wages have emerged as perhaps the key indicator being watched by economists to determine when the Fed might start raising interest rates.
During the past year, average hourly earnings growth has hovered well below the 3%-3.5% rate the Fed views as necessary to keep inflation at its desired 2% target rate.
One of the reasons cited for the lack of wage growth despite the tightening job market is the degree of so-called ‘labor market slack’ that emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which threw an estimated 8.8 million Americans out of work.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Vexed only because they refuse to admit all the job gains are part-time.
News stories like this will only feed the 2016 Dem narrative that “you guys need the Big Stick of Government to FORCE your GRRRRREEEEEDY employers to give you a raise.”
“One of the reasons cited for the lack of wage growth despite the tightening job market is the degree of so-called ‘labor market slack’ that emerged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, which threw an estimated 8.8 million Americans out of work.”
Try 92+ million. Just a tad off.
So, when are the democrats going to write a law mandating ALL of their minimum wages workers start working 25% faster and more efficiently so they can EARN 15% more money in their minimum wage jobs?
Don’t those people in the Labor Department get dizzy from all that spinning?
Government numbers? Then assume they are entirely made up unless proved otherwise.
The people in the labor dept. need to be laid off.
— U.S. employers hired at a stellar pace last month, wages rose by the most in six years, and Americans responded by streaming into the job market to find work.
The Labor Department said Friday that the economy gained a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, and added far more in previous months than originally estimated. Businesses added 414,000 jobs in November, the government now says, the most in 17 years. Total job gains in December were also revised higher, to 329,000, up from 252,000.
Average hourly wages, meanwhile, jumped 12 cents to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2 percent.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. More Americans began looking for jobs, though not all found work. Their job hunting suggests they are more confident about their prospects.
GARBAGE JOURNALISM akin to SOVIET PROPAGANDA....this is Associated Press via Boston Globe:
— U.S. employers hired at a stellar pace last month, wages rose by the most in six years, and Americans responded by streaming into the job market to find work.
The Labor Department said Friday that the economy gained a seasonally adjusted 257,000 jobs in January, and added far more in previous months than originally estimated. Businesses added 414,000 jobs in November, the government now says, the most in 17 years. Total job gains in December were also revised higher, to 329,000, up from 252,000.
Average hourly wages, meanwhile, jumped 12 cents to $24.75, the biggest gain since September 2008. In the past year, hourly pay has increased 2.2 percent.
The unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. More Americans began looking for jobs, though not all found work. Their job hunting suggests they are more confident about their prospects.
How many went to ILLEGALS for doing jobs Americans won’t do? Wages are a concern? Yes, if you can pay someone who is an ILLEGAL under the table why pay an American?
So where do all these phony-baloney, plastic-banana, feel-good, sex-drugs-rock’n’roll numbers come from, anyway? The claim is made that 275,000 jobs have been added, but what about the 500,000 jobs that have DISAPPEARED in the same time period? Is there something wrong with my arithmetic?
It seems like we should be recording the NEGATIVE numbers too, because the net LOSS of jobs has to be accounted for somewhere.
The CEO of Gallop has labled these employment numbers as “The big lie:
GALLUP: “The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment”
Gallup.com ^ | February 3, 2015 | Jim Clifton
Posted on 2/3/2015, 10:10:41 AM by Reverend Saltine
Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading. Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market. None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3253631/post
Unemployment Drops to 0% as Last Worker Leaves Labor Force
The People’s Cube ^ | May 3, 2014 | Opiate of the People Posted by 4Liberty
Comrade Barack Obama today became the first to achieve a milestone coveted by enlightened central planners everywhere when the Bureau of Laborious Statistics announced the much-followed totally-meaningless “headline” U3 unemployment rate for last month was ZERO PERCENT! This means that the glorious economic recovery he engineered after the disastrous Bush years has now attained FULL EMPLOYMENT!
It is a tribute to Professor Obama that he was able to find the Holy Grail which eluded history’s greatest economic thinkers such as Lenin, Stalin and Mao. This landmark achievement along with his establishment of free healthcare for everyone via the Affordable Care Act cements his reputation as the Greatest Leader in this or any other universe for all time.
The dramatic moment occurred at 12:03 PM, four weeks to the day after Lyman Yilk, a pipe-fitter from Bittcling, Pa, finally gave up looking for work. Mr. Yilk has been unemployed since 2005 but was on a celebratory bender since the day after Mr. Obama’s first election and did not know that the Keystone Pipeline (which Mr. Yilk was hoping to find work on) had been cancelled due to environmental concerns. When he finally sobered up four weeks ago and learned the project was dead, he abandoned his search to find a job.
Mr. Yilk was the last worker to leave the labor force and turned the lights out as he left. According to the BLS definition:
Quote: U3: Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks. Without Mr. Yilk, there was no one actively looking for work any longer, hence the U3 rate was now ZERO PERCENT, praise Obama!
Gloom-and-doom naysayers were quick to note that the labor force participation rate had also dropped to zero percent which (according to them) was not a good thing as it meant no one was employed. Comrade Nancy Pelosi countered their racist, straw-man argument brilliantly by observing that it also meant no comrade was any longer “job-locked” and each was free to be an artist, writer, hooker, etc, and pursue their passion.
“There is no underestimating this tremendous achievement of Barack Obama” said Paul Klugeman, an expert on hiding declines and fudging economic statistics as well being the self-proclaimed “Conscious Liberal”. “Comrade Obama has achieved the socialist dream of freeing all of The People ™ from the slavery of work and permitting them to live off of someone else’s dime as god, if he existed, would’ve wanted.”
Dr. Klugeman was asked if a problem would arise due to the fact that since no one was working, there would also be no one to pay for the benefits that all the non-workers were collecting.
“Nonsense”, he proclaimed. “The Fed will simply print money for artists and writers and hookers to use to buy things from China! What could go wrong?”
It seems so simple now, it’s a wonder no one ever thought of it sooner.
“The genius of Dear Leader Barack Obama lies in his simplicity”, said Dr. Klugeman.
We agree.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3151710/posts
The average marginally informed news consumer sees stories like this and concludes “things are getting better, businesses are profitable....so, where’s MY share?”
Joining in on the Dem’s “you didn’t build that” nonsense.
Wages? What wages?
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