Posted on 09/04/2009 1:27:20 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
The United States economy shed 216,000 jobs in August as the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Friday. Here is how economists and other analysts reacted:
Joshua Shapiro, economist, MFR Inc: “[W]hether or not today’s and other recent reports overstate the case, the improving trend of the labor market after the autumn/winter carnage cannot be denied. What is still very much open to question is how fast the move will be to stabilization of payrolls and eventually to job growth. We continue to believe that the process will be a slow one, and that households will be contending with weak income growth and balance sheet issues for some time.”
John Ryding and Conrad DeQuadros, economists, RDQ Economics: “This is a mixed report that, while consistent with the view that the recession has ended, suggests that the slightly smaller-than-expected decline in payrolls exaggerates the improvement in the labor market.”
Heidi Shierholz, economist, Economic Policy Institute: “Thanks to the Recovery Act, the pace of job loss is slowing dramatically. However, we are still losing jobs faster than we’re creating them. Hiring is not yet picking up, so unemployed workers are not able to find jobs.”
Thomas K.R. Wilson, director of institutional investments, Brinker Capital: “We remain cautiously optimistic on the United States economy as we continue to see signs of economic improvement. But as you would expect at this stage of an economic recovery, not all of the economic data is positive. Today’s job numbers are reflective of this.”
David Greenlaw and Ted Wieseman, economists, Morgan Stanley Research: “Today’s report — together with other indications of a moderation in the pace of layoffs — is consistent with the notion that the labor market is progressing toward recovery. We expect to see payroll growth by the end of the year. However … [the] unemployment rate probably won’t peak until early next year.”
Christine L. Owens, executive director, National Employment Law Project: “Even as job loss slows and the pendulum drifts towards recovery, the nation’s economy remains in dire shape. As today’s employment report revealed, nearly five million unemployed workers have been without jobs for six months or longer — almost three times the number of a year ago — underscoring that the unemployment crisis is real and deep for jobless workers, and the need for further action to boost our unemployment safety net is urgent.”
Paul Dales, economist, Capital Economics: “Over all, it is disappointing that the recovery in activity has not generated a greater improvement in labor market conditions. Of course, the labor market lags the economic cycle (in a normal recovery payrolls tend to start rising around three months after the end of the recession) so it is too soon to conclude that the U.S. is enduring another jobless recovery. That said, if the recession ended in June or July, it is worrying that at this stage payrolls are still falling by over 200,000 a month.”
Max Bublitz, chief market strategist, SCM Advisors: “Not surprisingly, today’s release had a little something for everyone. That seems to have been the pattern of late, as both bulls and bears grab any little piece of data to support their increasingly polarized views on the economy … first derivative this and second derivative that. At the end of the day — and it will be a short one – there was nothing in the employment report that should alter anyone’s opinion from what it was going in.”
It will get worse in the winter even.
does this 9.7% count the folks who are still unemployed but whose benefits have run out?
Let’s see...we lose 216,000 jobs, the unemployment rate rises to 9.7, and this shows us that the economy is getting better?
” It will get worse in the winter even. “
It may very well fall over the cliff in December/January, when/if the Christmas Shopping season falls flat on its face....
We are in a period where Government and it's Media supporters continue to paint a different economic picture then that the population perceives.
About 6.234 million people who have filed continue to be jobless.
U6 numbers as of September, 2009 have gone from 10.7% to 16.8% in one short year!
U6 accounts for the folks below, as well as the newly unemployed. Basically it lumps together EVERYONE that’s without a job, or those WITH part-time jobs who are ready, willing and able to work full time and those that have basically given up:
“Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past.
Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.”
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t12.htm
does this 9.7% count the folks who are still unemployed but whose benefits have run out?
NO...if those people, AND part-time workers who’d prefer a full-time position AND the people who have given up looking for work were to be (rightly) considered, then the unemployment rate is accurately 16.8%.
Just a gut feeling, but I'd say the REAL figure is closer to 20%.
0bama owns this Depression !
“and the need for further action to boost our unemployment safety net is urgent.”
“The Best Social Program is a Job”
All the while, the Chinese economy is rising very quickly, according to investment advisors. The investment advisors are urging their clients to invest in Chinese markets. At the same time, political propagandists here, in the west, are disseminating speech to mislead Americans into believing that the Chinese economy is crashing.
Uncle Joe says the stimulus is working.
No people think this all the time. Here from the labor department is how the numbers are arrived at.
http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.pdf
tag
You are 100% correct! Obbie and his press secretaries (formerly known as the MSM) can blame Bush but it's all Obama's now.
“Thanks to the Recovery Act, the pace of job loss is slowing dramatically.”
Right. Exactly what did you spend money on that “slowed” the pace of jobs loss?
800 billion dollars wasted on poorly thought out welfare payments to left wing programs whose only jobs creation will be the people shuffling paperwork to hide the money.
“...whose only jobs creation will be the people shuffling paperwork to hide the money.”
Exactly.
Save Us, Sarah! ;)
Whew!!!!!
Recovery is here. Thank you Obama!! /s
the Christmas Shopping season falls flat on its face...
Our family has already decided on a no gift Christmas except for the kids. We’ve explained to them that Obama is taking money that we’d use on presents so that they must expect less until we get a real president back in office.
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