Notice how they NEVER tell you who these "Economists" disappointed by the numbers are. No matter the number, it alwasy "Fails to meet expectations". Whoese? Economists working for the Democrat Party maybe?
WORST ECONOMY IN THE LAST 50 DAYS.
Here in central Oregon we have the same unemployment rate.
This 4.6% is call the "hard-core" unemployed - they will never have jobs.
We don't have high "new job rates" either - there are simply too many jobs and not enough workers to fill them.
Darn economy.
A person from the Heritage Foundation said employed teenagers were once at 50% of their total population, 10 years ago. Now that is down to 40% of teenagers are employed. He said if the minimum wage increases, that would be bad for adults trying to find work because they would have to compete with a huge influx of teens entering the workforce, wanting to earn those same wages.
Recently in the past couple months, several hundreds of thousands of people have taken part-time work. According a report on CNBC, half of those surveyed want to work full-time but because of the job market, they had to settle for part-time work.
Just as you have people who take themselves out of the home buying market when the housing prices are too high and enter the housing market when the prices are low. We have many people who will enter the workforce when there is a real demand for workers, represented by an increase in the wages being offered. This natural process has aborted by the government and by business. Businesses turn to the government when they cannot find workers at the wage they want to pay and request indentured servants from other countries to work for them. Or sometimes business employ illegal immigrants who are willing to work for less than Americans.
Economists have stated that the country needs to add 200,000 jobs per month (or about 2 million jobs per year) just to keep up with all the new people entering the job market.
Unemployment numbers does not count the millions of people who are underemployed, "involuntary part-time" workers (those who are working part-time, but want to work full-time), those who have lost their jobs and have become discouraged over time from actively looking for work, those who have retired before the official retirement age but would still like to work, etc.
Unemployment figures are limited to certain group of people. This is evident during the early stages of an economic boom when unemployment often rise. This is because people join the labor market because of the improving job market, but until they have actually found a position they are counted as unemployed. Similarly, during a recession, the increase in the unemployment rate is moderated by people leaving the labor force.
As the article states, 4.6% does make the interest rates go up, because the employers have to pay more to get qualified help. However, 4.6% is great news for our economy and should really help in the fall elections.
I definately agree with that statement. Dan Rather would lead with this story on his Evening "News".
On the other hand Jeannine, that low "new jobs" figure could be an indication that employers have become more "cautious" about hiring illegal aliens.
I believe my standard, "We're DOOOOOOOOOOMED!" works well here.
My afternoon ConservaBabe on local Talk Radio just read articles identical to this one from EVERY major MSM news outlet! Of course, she shot them all down...
If the unemployment rate went to 0, the MSM would spend a half hour whining about all of the unemployment office workers who would lose their jobs.
That is amazing spin. A 12.41 difference being significant?
Of course the article fails to mention the economy is likely slowing from smoking 5.3% economic growth in the 1st quarter to something closer to the 3.5% range which is still strong, healthy growth. No, instead they make it look like the economy is coming to a screeching halt or entering a recession. Yes, growth may be slowing but it's slowing from tremendous growth to strong growth. It's like saying the NASCAR race car is slowing from 175 mph to 100 mph. It slowed down but is still speeding along.
And if Kerry were president and this exact same set of economic circumstances had come about, the headline would be "Economy Continues to Pick up Steam from Confidence in New President."
This is a fantastic report. The good news on inflation will reduce pressure on the Fed to keep bumping interest rates.