Posted on 03/07/2003 5:47:52 AM PST by mikenola
Actually, immigrants *are* buying nice houses, at least in St. Louis. The parish that has Spanish-language masses is down in the city. Many of its Hispanic parishioners have left the city for the suburbs. The Bosnians move into the city at first, but in the past 10 years they've been moving to the suburbs too. Of course the Indian and Middle Eastern immigrants are heavily represented in the wealthier suburbs.
There is also this tremendous economy we have that is, well, not "underground," but it is not part of the big corporations. Economiosts call it "microbusiness," because it is 5 employees or fewer and usually based at home. I can't help but think that of these "308,000" losses, there were large numbers (perhaps in the hundreds of thousands) of new, home-based startups---everything from construction and plumbing to web design to landscaping.
"Industry Payroll Employment (Establishment Survey Data) Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 308,000 in February to 130.5 million, seasonally adjusted. Job losses were widespread in February, with the largest decreases in services and retail trade. Employment also fell sharply in construction and declines continued in manufacturing and in transportation and public utilities. (See table B-1.)
Services employment fell by 86,000 in February; despite this decline, the industry has added more than half a million jobs since January 2002Employment in amusement and recreation and in hotels decreased by 21,000 and 17,000, respectively, in February. Business services lost 26,000 jobs over the month, with decreases in services to buildings and in miscellaneous business services. Employment in help supply services and computer and data processing services was essentially unchanged over the month. Health services employment also was little changed in February; the industry had added an average of 21,000 jobs a month during 2002.
Retail trade employment decreased by 92,000 in February. This was the third month in a row with a large swing in retail employment; eating and drinking places accounted for a large share of the change in each of these months. From a longer-term perspective, employment in eating and drinking places has been on a downward trend since July 2001. Apparel and accessory stores lost 15,000 jobs in February, while department stores gained 27,000, after seasonal adjustment. Employment in both industries generally has been trending down since mid-2001.
In February, transportation and public utilities lost 41,000 jobs. Since its peak 2 years ago, this industry has lost over half a million jobs. Much of this decline occurred in air transportation and in communi cations, where employment decreased by 12,000 and 7,000, respectively, in February. In addition, the trucking industry lost 17,000 jobs over the month.
Employment in finance was little changed in February, despite continuing gains in mortgage banking. Low mortgage rates have driven employment growth in this industry. Since January 2001, mortgage bankers have increased employ ment by 41 percent (122,000 jobs).
In the goods-producing sector, construction employment dropped by 48,000 in February, following an increase of 26,000 in January. Since April 2002, construction employment has held at about 6.5 million.
Employment in the manufacturing industry continued its downward trend. In February, 53,000 factory jobs were lost--about in line with the average monthly decline for the prior 6 months. Over the month, industrial machinery and electronics had the largest job losses (10,000 each), while fabricated metals employment declined by 9,000."
I would rather have our employment situation than any other developed country's numbers. And yes the Chinese employment numbers are worse, if you can believe them. I don't remember Reuters headlines when we were adding jobs. They only show up on the down side. http://www.bls.gov/news.release
With regard to the LA Slimes, I'm doing my part. I haven't purchased a Slimes in over 14 years. They keep calling and I keep telling them their editorial policy is far too left for me.
Here! Here! It's so obvious, as is boycotting sponsors of ABCNBCCBSCNN. Not only don't watch, write their sponsors and tell them how disappointed you are that they are sponsoring this tripe and how it will affect your decisions regarding purchase of their products! That's true activism....
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