[EGPWS]

I'm confused. Is manufacturing output down or just employment in manufacturing jobs?

Posts like these are meant to confuse. Look at the bottom line which lies in the status of the market.

Taxes have been reduced, the market is on a solid upswing, and employment nationally is improving.

To nitpick issues as these to warp opinion, is generally synonymous with formulating a political agenda.

[ninenot]

Actually, "employment" is on an upswing--you are correct. Except that the "employment" is increasing in retail, self-employment (up 118,000 in September), and temporary employment.

Paul Craig Roberts, who is NOT a liberal, nor labor-affiliated, looked at the October increase of 160,000 jobs and found that only 6,000 of them were professional/technical; the rest were schlepper-types.

Another interesting fact: if one takes out the highest-earning 20% of Americans over the last 6 years (whose incomes increased by 9% during that period) the rest of income-earners' wages actually DECREASED by about 2% in the same timeframe.

Always remember that there are liars, damned liars, and statisticians.