unemployment rate

Hey! Good news in this month’s job report! (For an esoteric value of ‘good.’)

No, despite ‘break even’ as the new definition of ‘good,’ and the overall stagnation of the economy, this is a good report…

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, construction, and health care.

…if you’re a white guy.

Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for whites (6.8 percent) declined in February while the rates for adult men (7.1 percent), adult women (7.0 percent), teenagers (25.1 percent), blacks (13.8 percent), and Hispanics (9.6 percent) showed little or no change. The jobless rate for Asians was 6.1 percent (not seasonally adjusted), little changed from a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

If you’re not, well. I’d offer my sympathies, but I’m a white guy: you’d probably throw something at me, just in case I was being smug. Or ‘privileged,’ which is a term of art that can apparently change its definition without warning, and at random.

Moe Lane

PS: Labor participation rate at 63.5% percent; in layman’s terms, that translates as “the labor participation rate SUCKS.”

Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s problem with the reality of unemployment.

Watching this Debbie Wasserman Schultz video is surprisingly difficult: you keep expecting her to crack up at the nonsense that she’s spouting off. But… no.

Fox News’ Gretchen Carlson: “Unemployment has gone up precipitously since he took office.”

DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “That is simply not true. In fact, unemployment has now dropped below 9%. It’s continuing to drop. He’s been focused on – ”

Carlson: “Yes, but it’s higher than when they promised that the stimulus would lower it to 8%.”

Wasserman Schultz: “That narrative doesn’t work for you anymore.”

Carlson: “It’s not my narrative. I’m just talking about facts of where the unemployment numbers are.”

Wasserman Schultz: “You just said that the unemployment rate is going up since he took office, and it hasn’t.”

Carlson: “Is unemployment higher now than when President Obama took office?”

Wasserman Schultz: “What’s happened since President Obama took office – “

Carlson: “Is unemployment higher than when he took office?”

Wasserman Schultz: “Unemployment is nearing right around where it was when President Obama took office and it’s dropping. You just said that it’s been increasing and that’s not true.” (Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” 12/12/11)

Continue reading Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s problem with the reality of unemployment.

Failed-plan expert President Obama lectures GOP on plans.

But I’m sure that Barack Obama means well.

Isn’t this just the cutest thing?

If the video doesn’t load, Breitbart TV pulled the relevant quote:

“My plan says we’re going to put teachers back in the classrooms, construction workers back to work… Tax cuts for small businesses, tax cuts for hiring veterans, tax cuts if you give your worker a raise. That’s my plan. Then you got [the Republican’s] plan which is ‘let’s have dirtier air, dirtier water, less people with health insurance’… So far I’m feeling better about my plan.”

Continue reading Failed-plan expert President Obama lectures GOP on plans.

#rsrh The unemployment rate still su… ah, limps along at 9.1%.

137K new jobs in September, half of which are Verizon strikers going back to work. As one of my colleagues pointed out privately: well, we counted them as lost jobs when they went on strike; we should count them the other way now that they’re back to their jobs. Also, they adjusted up August’s job growth! …to 57K jobs gained.

Huzzah.

As another one of my (former) colleagues pointed out privately: it’s a measure of this administration that all of this qualifies as good news.

Jennifer Granholm’s slack-jawed economic advice.

Apparently, it’s all about planned economies: former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm is for ‘em.

“We operate as though we are not in a global economy,” says Granholm. “In theory, free markets and laissez faire make perfect sense, but in practice, our competitors are eating us for lunch.”

(pause)

Remember, this was supposed to be one of the Democrats’ smart ones. One of the people that was supposed to make you wistful that we only let native-born citizens be President (Granholm was born in Canada). Kind of alarming that she’s now talking about how free market capitalism just isn’t practical? – Because unless Jennifer Granholm had a stroke recently or something, this is probably not a new opinion for her. Which means that she probably had that opinion while she was running the state of Michigan. Which explains the current state of Michigan rather handily, really. Continue reading Jennifer Granholm’s slack-jawed economic advice.

The Democrats’ new laser-like focus on jobs… HEY!

Stop LAUGHING!

Hey, guess what? The Democrats plan to focus on jobs! (Via Ace of Spades) Stop me if you’ve heard this one before… what, you have?

A lot?

Are you sure?

Continue reading The Democrats’ new laser-like focus on jobs… HEY!

#rsrh Unemployment rate drops to 9.4%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that it’s down to 9.4% from 9.8%, seasonally adjusted (if you prefer the U-6 numbers, it’s down to 16.7% from 17.0%, seasonally adjusted). So… half a full point, huh? In 2009, the drop between November and December was half that; of course, in 2009 the business community wasn’t breathing a collective sigh of relief because the American people had just given the House of Representatives back to the adults.

Hey, I guess that we’ll just have to see if that was a justified sneer or not, huh? – Personally, I’ve always managed to avoid taking pleasure at the sight of bad economic news when it benefited my side; one wonders if my opposite numbers are going to be able to do the inverse…

Moe Lane

PS: More from Instapundit, including this dash of cold water.

June BLS: Job recovery stalled out.

UNEXPECTEDLY!

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 125,000 in June, and the unemployment rate edged down to 9.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The decline in payroll employment reflected a decrease (-225,000) in the number of temporary employees working on Census 2010. Private-sector payroll employment edged up by 83,000.

Note, of course, that May’s job report was equally stalled-out; the 431,000 jobs that were ‘gained’ that month were also Census workers. We’re just at the end of that particular necessary, but strictly limited, exercise in government spending.

So, how is that Keynesian economics thing working out for people, anyway? – Because where I’m sitting it seems to be roughly equivalent right now to revving the engine when the car’s set to neutral.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Good News/Bad News on unemployment.

Good news: thanks in large part to Census hiring, April job creation almost made the minimum replacement rate.

The American economy added 290,000 jobs in April, which was much better than expected despite temporary hiring for the 2010 U.S. Census. Excluding Census workers, 224,000 nonfarm jobs were created, with the unemployment rate edging up to 9.9% from 9.7%, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Bad news: unemployment went up to 9.9%. I’ll leave it to my readers to decide which is more important.

Moe Lane

PS: The general mood? “That’s nice, but the stock market almost went for a dance off of the Grand Canyon yesterday.”

Crossposted to RedState.

Great moments in Democratic recycling, February 2010. #rsrh

I meant to link to this Hawaiian good-luck symbol from (I believe) the NRCC yesterday:

…and I also remember seeing somewhere someone pointing out that back then the unemployment rate was around 6% and change. On the bright side, we’re probably not going to see double that this year.

[pause]

I think.