Posted on 01/05/2008 1:53:28 PM PST by shrinkermd
I just excerpted the portion on BLS statistics:
"For many months now, there had been plenty of warning that recession was lurking out there in the tall grass. ...economy was tanking, led by manufacturing, which was supposed be enjoying a boomlet thanks to the debased dollar and demand from abroad, and retailing, which presumably could always count, in fair weather or foul, on consumers to consume. Alas, it ain't necessarily so.
Came Friday and with it the crusher in the form of an exceptionally ugly report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on jobs -- or more precisely, the lack of them -- in December. As Philippa Dunne and Doug Henwood of the Liscio Report neatly summed it up, the payroll number was quite weak and its household counterpart even weaker.
"All told, supposedly 18,000 jobs were added. We might note right off the bat that there were no fewer than 66,000 mythical jobs added, courtesy of the infamous birth/death adjustment; save for that curious confection, the total would have gone considerably negative. That handy adjustment, incidentally, was responsible for 89% of all the reported payroll additions in 2007.
"Unemployment jumped to 5%, from 4.7%. And the big losers were widely dispersed, paced by construction, where 49,000 jobs vanished last month and manufacturing, which lost 31,000. Apart from health-care and restaurants and bars, there were virtually no conspicuous gainers. As Philippa and Doug quip: "Our new economic model: eat, drink and check into the hospital."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Alan, you’re finally right!
That wolf must have been on a slow train, because it took him 20 years to get here.
How is five percent unemployment bad?
Yeah , the end is near . Sort of , maybe , it all depends. What a dope. It’s like saying , the ice is melting spring is coming , i told you , i told you ......
No. Construction does not slow during the winter months.
That has absolutely nothing to do with this.
Certainly not during a republican administration anyway.
The truth is that we don't manufacture a lot of the products that folks from abroad and our own folks want to buy. So our merchandise trade deficit will not improve very much. After all, there is a natural limit to how much scrap metal, chicken feet and waste paper we can export.
“Construction does not slow during the winter months.”
But it does from November through the first of the year.
Commercial anyways. Hence the December statistics. Just my 2 cents.
HVACR Mechanical Contractor.
5% unemployment is considered full employment.
Manufacturing must and will go down within the USA because of an expading global company. Manufacturing is being outsourced which is capitalism in action.
We live in a new era of dynamic economic movement and reallocation. Get used to it.
What we have also been doing is dumping antiquated manufacturing processes that require high additional manual input.
Small appliance assembly comes to mind ~ and artificial flowers would be typical.
China has the hands; they have been taking on the relics of the industrial age.
Way to make a buck or two, but the USA, Japan and parts of Western Europe are already several centuries ahead of the rest of the world, and the gap is widening.
The coordinated administrative hold against employment was done a month earlier than usual. The corporate purpose in the planned recession is to bring oil prices down (freight fuel), in order to resume the import binge. ...and maybe a hope on the side that temporarily choking growth in places like China in order to continue the status quo.
It won’t work very well as planned, though. Most of the people looking for work aren’t the people driving fuel hogs every time they get bored. Lay off much of the middle class, and it might work.
The lock against employment usually occurs in January/February, when the top administrators head south for their winter vacations.
It’s not but the change could be ominous.
Yes but the labor in the vast majority of home construction are illegals and don’t show up in the stats.
This is why the home construction bust has not affect the economy as it has in the past. Illegals just go get another job. When Americans get laid off they sit around and complain and draw unemployment.
John
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Economic literacy PING!!
Hank
Sensationalism by the Media, everywhere you turn we have a negative report this and that. Subprime began the liberal’s avalanche and was created by the left In congress.
Banks giving out mortgage loans to people that can’t afford the loans has started a recession and Bush is pretending the economy is doing great! He is the predident, issue an executive order to lower the payroll taxes. People like myself will go broke because we can not just stop our 401k plans and the criminals in the USA knows about all of this
Hank
First drink, tomorrow - air.
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