Largest hiring burst in years, but jobless rate up

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/7/10 | Jeannine aversa - AP

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – The economy got what it needed in April: A burst of hiring that added a net 290,000 jobs, the biggest monthly total in four years.

The improving picture caused so many more people to pour into the labor force in search of employment that the jobless rate rose from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent.

The hiring last month of 66,000 temporary government workers to conduct the census added to overall job creation. But private employers — the backbone of the economy — contributed the most: A surprisingly strong 231,000 jobs, the most since March 2006, the Labor Department said Friday.

The new jobs, generated by sectors across the economy, are the first sign that the recovery is adding significant numbers of new jobs — even if not enough to absorb the influx of jobseekers. That's why the unemployment rate rose.

[NormsRevenge]

media plays game with numbers.. unemployment went up becuz more people are now looking for work again..

Rush played some clips of talking heads playing the game.. higher unemployment number is a good thing.

[Bernard]

If higher unemloyment is a good thing, then I can’t wait for the official number to be 20%, so we can say the economy is sizzling.

[jessduntno]

Four legs good, two legs bad...strength through weakness...I’m from the government and I’m here to help...

Ohhhhhhhh...just plain old GD.

[NormsRevenge]

U.S. President Barack Obama is accompanied by his economic team as he makes a statement about the monthly job numbers from the White House in Washington May 7, 2010. From left are Director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Obama, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer and Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT)

[I still care]

Can you imagine if Bush was president?

We certainly wouldn’t be hearing, oh unemployment is up, and it’s good because people are hiring?

No, it would be gloom and disaster because of the world’s most unpopular president ever and the evil Halliburton machine.

[ClearCase_guy]

What I see with my own eyes is relentlessly bad. I see no good news.

But, hey, the media tells me that a rising unemployment rate is a good thing, and who am I to disagree? Our ecovery is in full swing and taking us back to double-digit unemployment. Yee-Haa! With any luck, the vast amount of government spending will result in hyperinflation any day now. Then we can really party!!

[Recovering_Democrat]

How much do I loathe the mainstream media? If this happened under George W. Bush, the CONSTANT INCESSANT UNSTOPPING RELENTLESS focus would be upon the unemployment rate.

Jerkoff Hussein gets a spring hiring bump and the media engage in circle jerk.

Sorry if anyone is offended by this language, but that is the perfect metaphor for the single-minded, selfish symbiosis between “journalists” and the White House.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Unbelievable!

In a related story, I heard a news blurb on the radio yesterday that I found to be hilarious. The government was telling workers that they could "help speed up the recovery" by going in and asking their bosses for a raise. ROTFLMAO!!! Their idea is, if we have more money to spend, we can make the economy "recover faster". The Obama regime is loaded with geniuses.

[ilgipper]

they railed on him for 4.7%. It is sickening.

[jessduntno]

The brain trust...a bunch of elites who have NEVER HELD A JOB.

[freespirited]

The improving picture caused so many more people to pour into the labor force in search of employment that the jobless rate rose from 9.7 percent to 9.9 percent.

Does this really make sense? Say I were sitting here as an unemployed person who had given up. How would I know that employers had created a couple hundred thousand new jobs, making it a "good time" to start looking again.

Nicer weather makes more sense than that.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

Makes perfect sense.....

[Haiku Guy]

They fudged the numbers,
By not counting them before.
But they still exist.

And now they gotta
Offset the new job numbers.
Hoist on own petard...

[April Lexington]

A raise? THAT is insanity... those with jobs are happy to have jobs. Raises come from performance and productivity, not the corporate welfare ATM...

[Mere Survival]

No mention that I saw of the temporary jobs boost by the census. Take that away and we have a devastating number.

[Darth Reardon]

No mention that I saw of the temporary jobs boost by the census. Take that away and we have a devastating number.

Third sentence in the excerpt. Less than 25% of total.

[Flycatcher]

Your haiku is astute.

Did you notice this little gem that was hidden deep in the article:

The rate could climb back up to the 10 percent range in the months ahead, Naroff said.

[Mere Survival]

Missed the data about census. Thanks.

[Maelstorm]

I’m pretty sure that the explaination of the higher unemployment is crap. The measurement is based on unemployment claims not on numbers of hypothetical new job seekers who were just sitting around waiting for things to get better.

[moose2004]

To date the government has hired 138,000 Census workers, they are planning on hiring around 700,000. Look for a big jump in Census hiring in May and June, but all of them will be sent packing in a few months time, not good at all.