January 14, 2014

December jobs report? Pay no attention, because unemployment *fell* a huge amount!

The government released the jobs report for December, and it showed the fewest jobs created in three years.  How bad was it?  Check out the graph:


To get a feel for this number, many analysts have written that the economy needs to add an *average* of about 220,000 jobs each month just to absorb the number of people just entering the job market.

So how did the Democrat-loving media report this?  Why, it reported that it was "surprising."  And that the unemployment rate actually *fell* in December, to a warm fuzzy 6.7 percent!

This number was achieved because so many people officially stopped looking for work.  The percentage of Americans actually working is the lowest in 35 years.  But if you read the NY Times, the big news is that the "surprising" jobs report has "strengthened the hand of Democrats" in the battle to extend unemployment benefits again.

Did the Times by any chance look at possible reasons for the dismal job figure, perhaps musing whether it could have anything to do with uncertainty by business owners and managers regarding, say, Obamacare, or the prospects for the government reining in huge deficits?  Why yes, they did.  And their conclusion?

They attributed the weak job number to...unusually cold weather.

In that case we should be due for a huge surge in January, as the unfilled job demand from December adds to the "expected" demand in January.

Guess we'll see.

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