Wow!
Worst economy ever...
Check out this Reuter's headline:
"Jan jobless rate drops, job growth disappoints"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060203/bs_nm/economy_employment_dc
The democrats will say that more people have given up trying to find work. Don't you know this is the worst economy since the depression?
/sarcasm
Dims: NOT Bush's fault!
Damn McDonalds, employing all those people. Damn Bush economy!
John Kerry's Hooverville dreams are being undermined.
Forecasters called for a higher number for today. Therefore, the MSM will LIE this report into a bad news story.
Clinton could do better. Ask Tim Kaine.
It seems to me that the unemployment-inflation relationship has now been optimized.
Time to start working on the trade imbalance
WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
should be Breaking, we need to cheer this good economic news as Bush travels and makes speeches on the same subject.
U.S. Economy Adds 193,000 Jobs in Jan.; Unemployment Rate at 4.7%
Friday, February 03, 2006
WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added a smaller-than-forecast 193,000 new jobs in January but job growth in each of the five prior months was pushed up as part of a broader annual revision of the Labor Department's statistics collection, a government report on Friday showed.
The monthly report showed the January unemployment rate dropped to a 4-1/2-year low 4.7 percent from 4.9 percent in December. The last time the rate was lower was in July 2001 when it was at 4.6 percent.
Economists had forecast that 240,000 new jobs would be created in January and that the unemployment rate would be unchanged at 4.9 percent.
Average hourly earnings rose to $16.41 in January from $16.34 in December. In the 12 months through January, earnings have risen by 3.3 percent, the largest for any 12-month period in nearly three years, since February 2003. The wage data is likely to fan concerns that steady job growth is pushing up demands for wage rises and that could help foster broader inflation.
Previously, the department said 108,000 jobs were created in December but it pushed that up to 140,000 and it said that, in November, 354,000 jobs were created rather than the 305,000 it reported a month ago.
We're DOOOOOOOMED!
Worker Productivity Plummets, Wage Inflation Signals Seen
Worst Economy in 50 years
Unemployment at 4.7% with 193000 new jobs created In January.
Bloomberg puts a more positive spin on their headline:
U.S. Economy Adds 193,000 Jobs; Unemployment Rate Drops to a Four-Year Low
American employers added 193,000 workers in January and the unemployment rate fell to 4.7 percent, the lowest since July 2001, as the U.S. economy strengthened and builders took advantage of warm weather to start projects...
http://www.bloomberg.com/
Definitely Bush's Fault!
Ok - so has BLS and DOL changed the way they seasonally adjust the numbers lately?
It had been the first two reports for a month were preliminary, so each month would be revised a total of two times. In a growing economy, it hadn't been unusual to see upward revisions the first time, then slightly downward the next.
Now for this report, nov-dec growth was revised upward by 32k, oct-nov was revised downward by 49k, but they've gone back and revised the september and october job numbers *downward* from their supposed final numbers of last month. More specifically, they moved the october report down 178k and september down 190k.
Not trying to throw doom and gloom, but I've never seen them do this before. Maybe I've never noticed this before and its just my own oversight... :)
Yes, but are they "good" jobs?
Whatever happened to that talking point?