Posted on 01/06/2006 8:56:36 PM PST by ncountylee
President George Bush has shrugged off weaker-than-expected jobs figures, hailing the strong US economy as "the envy of the industrialised world". Mr Bush also declared the US economy was heading into 2006 "with a full head of steam", at a speech in Chicago.
He trumpeted rising consumer confidence and strong retail sales as evidence of America's economic strength.
The claims came despite figures showing 108,000 jobs were created in December, less than half analysts had forecast.
Trend warning
However, Treasury Secretary John Snow warned it was unwise to read too much into the latest employment data, pointing out that November's figures had been revised sharply upwards.
The Labor Department said US employers created 305,000 jobs in November, an increase from its previous estimate of 215,000.
"I wouldn't read too much into one month's numbers," Mr Snow said in an interview with CNBC.
Mr Snow was just one of a number of top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, sent across the US to tout the country's economic achievements.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsvote.bbc.co.uk ...
Heavy BBC bias.
"Weak jobs data", BBC? 4.9% unemployment and the communist faggots at the BBC say weak data? Thuck Fem!
The hate for this man is just beyond belief.
Unemployment went down. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the world.
The lowest in the world.
In spite of the fact that we have the lowest unemployment rate in the world, the unemployment rate went down.
It's not their BS that stuns me, it's their blatancy.
400,000 jobs in 2 months, and 2 million in 2005... I guess Bush shrugged off the drop in the Unemployment rate from 5.0% to 4.9% as well :-)
The leftists are simply losing it
Stack 4.9% unemployment up against ANY country in Europe.
How's the unemployment rate in England?
Soooo....
the unemployment goes DOWN and its weak.
Black is white too.
Ping.
Excuse me .. if people would just use a little common sense, they could figure out why there were over 300,000 jobs in November and only 108,000 in Dec.
Early in November, stores start amping up for Christmas and New Years. They hire a lot of STUDENTS who will be out of school for the holidays; students who are looking for a temp job to earn some extra money.
After Christmas, stores begin laying off those people they hired in November. The students don't file for unemployment because they are going back to school.
HELLO!! Why can't the media figure that out ..??
ABC Radio News earlier today called the jobs numbers "dismal".
Good lord their delusional. You know, our constitution says nothing about freedom of speech for British newspapers, can't we just bomb them?
Unemployment rate in Europe is about 8.5%.
What a bunch of losers. The BBC will try to turn any good news for Bush into bad news. No bias there, right? Socialist idiots!
It should be interesting in how Paul Craig Roberts respond.
Hey Germany... choke on it - your version of the riots that struck France will soon hit you.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.