Unemployment rate falls to 5% (CNN Ticker)

CNNMoney ^ | May 2, 2008 | Staff

[abb]

Employers trimmed a less-than-expected 20,000 jobs in April, marking the 4th straight month of losses; unemployment falls to 5%.

[Slapshot68]

“Pelosi and Reid will claim that most workers who have lost their jobs recently have taken new lower paying jobs at McDonalds or Walmart.”

And of course the average wage going up will disprove that, but no one will challenge their idiocy.

[kbennkc]

If the unemployment rate went from 5.1% to 5% then employers must have ADDED jobs.

About 40 years ago my statistics professor told us when statistics are given without supporting data , most of which I have forgotten anyway , we were not only free to disregard them , we were advised to assume the presenter of such statistics intended to deceive .

[ElectricStrawberry]

WORST ECONOMY IN HISTORY!!!!!

[woodbutcher1963]

“Bummer, guess they need to get a marketable skill.”

Or aleast be able to speak the English language.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

When the economy started turning around prior to the '92 election, the Dems spun it as a recovery in anticipation of a Democrat victory in November.

[massgopguy]

And then they passed a retroactive tax increase and stopped it.

[CitizenM]

Pelosi and Reid will claim that most workers who have lost their jobs recently have taken new lower paying jobs at McDonalds or Walmart.

You are right. That is what they always say. However, if the economy was/is so bad...people wouldn't be hired at McDonald's or WalMart either. Those places would be feeling losses in sales and wouldn't need more employees. I always wondered why no Repub. ever said that to the Dems when they offered those type of comments.

[driftless2]

What is occurring is what many experts (don’t ask me to name names) said would happen last year. We would have slow growth but no recession in the first half of the year. Then things would pick up. It looks like they were correct. But I guess we’re still DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED! (smirk)

[Slapshot68]

Not to mention the fact that avg hourly earnings continue to rise (albeit slowly over the last few months). If there was epidemic mass move from good paying position to McJobs paying positions, you’d see that reflected in the national payscale.

[MCCRon58]

Do I detect a note of sarcasm here???

[driftless2]

"all is good"

I'm glad to see your post without a hint of sarcasm. But no sir, we're definitely doomed. I'm for sending tin cups to all Americans to beg for pennies and scraps of bread from passersby.

[Slapshot68]

“What is occurring is what many experts (don’t ask me to name names) said would happen last year. We would have slow growth but no recession in the first half of the year. Then things would pick up. It looks like they were correct. But I guess we’re still DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED! (smirk)”

I know not everything is rosey and not to sound too optimistic but if our economy can weather a major housing market slump and credit disaster, then our economy is much more resilient than our politicians give it credit for.

[stravinskyrules]

everything is fine. no problems. inflation is way under control. interest rates are excellent and banks have so much money to loan. people are paying their bills. fuel prices are ridiculously low. economy is growing by leaps and bounds. businesses both small and large are prospering like never before. unemployment rate is excellent. yep all is good.

When has the economic news ever been considered "not without dark clouds on the horizon" by the "experts"?

Based upon the numbers, if the last 20 years haven't been the "best of times", we will never have them.

[MaxMax]

There is no news here, It's all a lie, We are winning at destroying America

[teddyballgame]

“Employers trimmed a less-than-expected 20,000 jobs in April, marking the 4th straight month of losses;”

Huh? In otherwords, unemployment is down. I love these MSM misleading headlines.

[kabar]

What's your point? In the case of Obama and Condi, they stayed in school, got a top flight education, and are success stories. Oprah overcame a tough childhood thru hard work to become a billionaire. There are plenty of other success stories, but they don't change the fact that almost 70% of black children are born out of wedlock and that there are huge school dropout rates, some as high as 75% in Detroit.

Demography is destiny in terms of what this country will look like in the future. It is changing rapidly. Unless we do something to change the social pathology of most blacks and hispanics in this country, we will decline as a nation. They are our future.

Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability.

The dimensions of the Hispanic baby boom are startling. The Hispanic birthrate is twice as high as that of the rest of the American population. That high fertility rate – even more than unbounded levels of immigration – will fuel the rapid Hispanic population boom in the coming decades.

By 2050, the Latino population will have tripled, the Census Bureau projects. One in four Americans will be Hispanic by midcentury, twice the current ratio.

It's the fertility surge among unwed Hispanics that should worry policymakers. Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country – over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly 1 ½ times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Every 1,000 unmarried Hispanic women bore 92 children in 2003 (the latest year for which data exist), compared with 28 children for unmarried white women, 22 for unmarried Asian women, and 66 for unmarried black women.

Forty-five percent of all Hispanic births occur outside of marriage, compared with 24 percent for whites and 15 percent for Asians. Only the percentage for blacks – 68 percent – is higher. But the black population is not going to triple over the next few decades.

The only bright news in this demographic disaster story concerns teen births. Overall teen childbearing in the U.S. declined for the 12th year in a row in 2003, having dropped by more than a third since 1991. Yet even here, Hispanics remain a cause for concern. The rate of childbirth for teens from Mexico, part of the fastest-growing immigrant population in the U.S., greatly outstrips every other group.

[Slapshot68]

My point is that while I recognize that certain demographics have more difficulty succeeding in life, that it can and HAS been done.

You began this thread with stats about minorities having higher UE rates...so I must ask you, what was YOUR point in posting those?

[MinnesotaLibertarian]

If the unemployment rate went from 5.1% to 5% then employers must have ADDED jobs.

Or people died, left the country, retired, or stopped looking for a job. Probably doesn't account for all of it, but an descrease in the unemployment rate doesn't gurantee that jobs were added.

[Chode]

[hattend]

Employers cut far fewer jobs in April than in recent months and the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent. It was a better-than-expected showing that nonetheless still revealed strains in the nation’s crucial labor market.

The AP can't give a Republican administration credit, nope, wouldn't be prudent.