Jobs news: With today’s report, unemployment fell to the lowest rate since December 2008. pic.twitter.com/XZsRPMfzI2
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) September 6, 2013
US Unemployment continues to fall, now at four year low
US employers added 162,000 new jobs last month helping to bring the unemployment rate down to 7.4% nationally, the lowest rate in four years.
The strongest job growth was in retail, which added over 46,000 jobs last month. That means consumers are spending. Good news.
Another 36,000 jobs were added in professional and business services. Only 7,000 of those were temp jobs – more good news.
Government jobs only added 1,000 position, leaving that number virtually unchanged. Cutting back on government jobs – a favorite of conservatives who like smaller government – has played a big part in the numbers of unemployed in the US. The largest loss of jobs in the country by sector has occurred in government jobs as positions have been cut, largely through attrition. These jobs include not only civil servants, but unfortunately teachers, police and firefighters.
Over the past 41 months over 7 million private sector jobs have been created.
Jobs: 36 straight months of positive job growth
Our economy has added nearly 6.4 million private-sector jobs over 36 straight months.
Plus, the stock market is hitting record highs.
Unemployment drops to 7.7%
The February jobs report has been released:
U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs to non-farm payrolls in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on Friday, up from 119,000 in January. That was the best payroll growth since 247,000 jobs last November and the second-best month for job growth of the past 12 months. The unemployment rate dropped to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January, with 12 million people looking for work. That is the lowest unemployment rate since December 2008, when the rate was 7.3 percent.
Mitt Romney promised us that the unemployment rate would go down and the stock market would go up after the election.
I’m guessing he had other reasons in mind, though…
NV: Unemployment drops to lowest rate in 3.5 years
Not low enough, but headed in the right direction at least.
New jobs report: “Solid – right direction”
U.S. employers stepped up hiring in October and the jobless rate ticked higher as more workers restarted job hunts, a good sign a lackluster economy is slowly, but steadily improving.
Employers added 171,000 people to their payrolls last month, the Labor Department said on Friday. The government also said 84,000 more jobs were created in August and September than previously estimated.
“We still have a long way to go but this is a step in the right direction,” said Stephen Bronars, chief economist of Welch Consulting. Analysts had expected a smaller number of new jobs – around 125,000 – to be added, according to Bloomberg News.
All of the gain in payrolls was in the private sector, which added 184,000 jobs in October, the biggest increase since February. The government shed 13,000 positions.
The jobless rate edged up a tenth of a point to 7.9 percent, but that was due to workers surging back into the labor force. Only people who are looking for a job count as unemployed.
“This report is consistent with the emerging picture of an economic recovery that is continuing to regain traction after grinding to a halt earlier this year,” said Millan Mulraine, senior U.S. strategist at TD Securities in Toronto.
(source)
Nevada jobless claims drop to lowest level in 5 years
The number of Nevadans filing initial claims for jobless benefits fell in September to the lowest level in five years.
The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation says the 13,932 initial claims filed last month are the lowest since before the recession began in 2007. September’s filings compare with 16,693 initial claims filed in the same month last year.
Initial claims peaked in December 2008 at 34,414.
The agency will release its full report on September unemployment numbers for Nevada on Friday.
Nevada has had the nation’s highest jobless rate since May 2010.
(source)
Congressman Allen West accuses the Obama administration of “cooking the books” over falling unemployment numbers
Funny how when the numbers went up, they were accurate; now that they are falling, they must be wrong…
If Nixon couldn’t “fix” the numbers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, what makes Allen West think President Obama could?
And IF he could, why wait until now to do it?
SRSLY.
NBC News: Unemployment rate falls to 7.8%
The nation’s unemployment rate dropped to the lowest it has been since early in 2009 in September, providing a potential upbeat talking point for President Barack Obama in the days left before the presidential election.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September, a decline of 0.3 percentage point and the lowest since January 2009. It was the first time the jobless rate has fallen below 8 percent in almost four years.
The government said the economy created 114,000 jobs, about as expected, and generated 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated.
Mitt Romney on unemployment – when HE was in charge
When Mitt Romney inevitably slams President Obama later today regardless of how good or bad the new jobs report is, he’ll likely say something along the lines of how the president needs to stop making excuses about inheriting a down economy.
But when Romney himself was running a government, in his case the state of Massachusetts, he was even more defensive about his lack of control of the employment picture than Obama is today. A new video unearthed by the liberal research group American Bridge shows Romney at a press conference in June 2006 admonishing reporters on disappointing jobs data. “You guys are bright enough to look at the numbers. I came in and the jobs had been just falling right off a cliff, I came in and they kept falling for 11 months,” he explains.
“And if you are going to suggest to me that somehow the day I got elected, somehow jobs should have immediately turned around, well that would be silly. It takes awhile to get things turned around. We were in a recession, we were losing jobs every month,” he added.
This isn’t a statement from decades ago. This is from five years ago.