March figures show biggest job gains in three years

[CADsortaGUY]

Underemployment is VERY real and 100% measurable.

Underemployment is when someone wants to work full time but cannot find a full time job.
The unemployment figures include that people in the employed column.
Now, we do not know if every single one of these 120,000 or so jobs was part time or not.

"wants" but can't find? oh puhleeze. It's a survey at best and has no real weight since you can't verify if they are "trying" or not.

 

[dullard]

Something about this chart really bugs me. While I understand that red is usually a color used to indicate a decrease in something, why are the increases colored blue? When I first saw this graph, the first thing that came to mind was that red=republican and blue=democrat. Why aren't the gains colored green? Is this chart intended to mislead people or am I the only person who made this mistake?

Red/Green leads to difficulties for people who are colorblind (roughly 200 million people). Red/Blue has far less problems. Only a few highly policitical people in the US would ever associate those colors with political parties instead of with whatever the graph is showing.

 

[Special K]

I'm going to quote this so you can't take it back later.


Underemployed people are those "working poor" that Michael Moore loves to talk about. They don't get enough hours to cover their expenses and thus rely on their savings, they don't have enough hours to qualify for full time benefits like health insurance, and they slowly get closer to bankruptcy with each passing month.

As I posted above, it also includes people who are technically unemployed but have fallen into the category of "marginally attached worker" or "discouraged worker" because they haven't made a job search effort in the past 4 weeks. These people don't have jobs but aren't included in U3.

 

[ShawnD1]

Red/Green leads to difficulties for people who are colorblind (roughly 200 million people). Red/Blue has far less problems. Only a few highly policitical people in the US would ever associate those colors with political parties instead of with whatever the graph is showing.

I didn't know about the colorblind thing. Interesting.

Lots of graphs use red and blue to differentiate political party. National debt example:

Market price of democrat and republican stock during the election:

(it's a gambling website that works like a stock market. you bet on which politician will win and the payout depends on what the stock price is.)

 

[dullard]

I didn't know about the colorblind thing. Interesting.

Lots of graphs use red and blue to differentiate political party. National debt example:

Pick as many graphs as you want, their combined audience is still probably just a small fraction of the US population who cares. That would be a small number in comparison to the 200 million with red/green colorblindness.

 

[Jaskalas]

Bush's mishandling of the economy and the totally unnecessary war in Iraq.

Oh, right... just a few more years and we'll recover from a housing bubble and investment cause by Bush and the Iraq war. Gotcha. Pass the Kool-Aid while you're here.

 

[Jaskalas]

As for the OP's claims. I see some merit to suggesting government spending has risen us from free fall to stagnation, but then again who is to say the world would have ended without government spending? Who is to say that burning your dollars bills at midnight for the sun gods to make sunlight is required for dawn?

At this point all we have is your word to go by. This recovery is all government money. Will the rug be swept out from under it, will we now double dip? Perhaps an artificial recovery is not a recovery at all. Time will tell how sound our economy is with such flippant intervention.

Healthcare taxes, erasing the Bush tax cuts, and attempting cap and tax by the end of this year are not good tidings for what is to come economically.

 

[Ozoned]

It's going to be a long, slow slog for job recovery --- we knew this a year and a half ago.

My worry is that there will be a new 'low' ---- instead of 4-4.5% being considered 'full employment', we've lost so much of the economy that 5.5-6% might become the new standard ...

Unless the American Economy goes on a McJob binge.




--

That will depend on how immigration reform goes. There could be some downward pressure put on labor value.

 

[shira]

Oh, right... just a few more years and we'll recover from a housing bubble and investment cause by Bush and the Iraq war. Gotcha. Pass the Kool-Aid while you're here.

Well, Bush and his minions fvcked up the economy pretty bad. But they were all great actors, and it's easy to see just how completely the trailer-part crowd got taken in by the "just cut taxes" smoke and mirrors. And now they're holding tea parties on the tailgates of their pickup trucks - some people never learn.

But I think Obama will be able to set things right by the middle of his second term. And the tea-partyers - salt of the earth and all that stuff - will be able to get those good minimum-wage jobs again.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

I didn't know about the colorblind thing. Interesting.

Lots of graphs use red and blue to differentiate political party. National debt example:

Market price of democrat and republican stock during the election:

(it's a gambling website that works like a stock market. you bet on which politician will win and the payout depends on what the stock price is.)

Can you give me a graph on who controlled congress during those years?

 

[Jhhnn]

Can you give me a graph on who controlled congress during those years?

As if that really matters- the president can veto any legislation, and presents the budget in the first place...

The larger question, of an economy needing constant govt deficits as stimulus is the most troubling and most side-stepped issue.

What happened to all that investment "trickledown" economy activists promised us when we cut taxes at the top? Real growth requires real investment. Private equity asset stripping and hedge fund financial manipulation ain't it... nor are real estate bubbles and fraudulent mortgage bonds, either...

 

[werepossum]

I'll admit it, I find this very good news. And I don't begrudge Shira his gloating, as he hasn't had much good news to celebrate. Once Obama's cap and tax is resolved, and his proposed taxation and regulatory reforms dealt with, I think the economy will come back faster than anyone is now predicting. I don't think we'll reach the employment levels we enjoyed under Bush or even under Clinton, because we have more government (overhead) and much more debt, but I think we'll settle in at maybe 7 - 8% U-3. Or at least until the wheels completely come off and we can't borrow any more money - which appears to be the case under each party, with just a variation in the speed at which we approach it.

As if that really matters- the president can veto any legislation, and presents the budget in the first place...

Anyone following American politics knows that if Congress is controlled by the other party, then the president's submitted budget is DOA, a mere formality. Congress crafts its own budgets, as it should, and only supports the president's priorities if he is of the same party or if, like Reagan, he can go past Congress and the media and present the public with an agenda they will get behind.

 

[Taejin]

Unemployment at 10% and you call that a gain? Plus you have census workers, all temporary, being counted. The fact is that you need to be adding 100,000 jobs per month to absorb all the new people entering the market. Economists don't project that to happen any time soon.

they said that in past years the effect of census workers was felt in april, and not in march. this was on WTOP radio.

 

[Jhhnn]

Anyone following American politics knows that if Congress is controlled by the other party, then the president's submitted budget is DOA, a mere formality. Congress crafts its own budgets, as it should, and only supports the president's priorities if he is of the same party or if, like Reagan, he can go past Congress and the media and present the public with an agenda they will get behind.

Incorrect-

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/56More.htm

I recognize that you're just repeating a widely held Rightie meme, but it didn't require any sort of Google-fu to find that piece, and a lot more like it...

 

[nonlnear]

Incorrect-

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/56More.htm

I recognize that you're just repeating a widely held Rightie meme, but it didn't require any sort of Google-fu to find that piece, and a lot more like it...

Stop attacking the myth of zombie Reagan.

 

[sandorski]

Even without the Census Hirings the results are a good sign.

 

[kage69]

Yeah it's good to see, but the whole census thing immediately came to mind so I'm a wee bit suspicious. Obama's admin doesn't even approach Cheney's in regards to cherry picked numbers (jobs and enlistments come to mind), but that doesn't mean they don't do it at all.

Let's see this news become a trend and then I'll celebrate. Oh wait, I got a transfer/promotion/raise on the 31st, I AM CELEBRATING!

 

[Schadenfroh]

A few months of cooling means nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Oh wait, wrong thread...

 

[WHAMPOM]

Edit: My commentary on this news: The economy is obviously slowly recovering. This latest jobs report just reinforces that notion. But it would be absurd to expect that unemployment rates and the overall economic landscape will return to what we had during the utopian Clinton era. I will take several more years to recover from Bush's mishandling of the economy and the totally unnecessary war in Iraq.

OK, let's hear the new righty spin on this one. Let me guess: If not for the pinko-commie Obama and his spendthrift ways, there would have been 1,000,000 new jobs in March.

Anyway, back to planet Earth:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/02/news/economy/jobs_march/index.htm?hpt=T1



Come on righties, spin, spin, spin.

Righties?? I read it as the lowest job loss in three years. Don't we need 250,000+ jobs created per month to stay even?

 

[brandonb]

Shira, come back and talk to us about "growth" when inflation is reduced, wages increase, and unemployment drops.

I keep seeing bread prices increase, and I'm not seeing any increase in wage. What is going on right now is the middle class is slowly disappearing, while the rich elite are still in power (which is compromised of both Repubs and Democrats, 2 sides of the same coin.)

Gloat all you want, but do you even know who you are cheering for?

 

[Nemesis 1]

Its not as good as appears . 48,000 of those jobs came from census temperary employees who are paid by taxes . A step backwards. Than you must also know how many more jobs are a result of government hires.

Allgovernment jobs are Tax related in so far as we the people paying to hire more .
What a joke this is . As I recall the government also changed the rules as to who will be counted as unemployed . These numbers are anything but good. The government must shrink inorder to avoid bankrupt. The trend is towards more government jobs and control . Than there is also the pension fund problems most of that moneey stolen and gone forever . You people talk about SS and baby boomer problems . Well those baby boomers are going to demand there pensions and the money has simply been stolen .

I am pretty sick. But I feel good about it . If it gets me out of the coming upheaval.

Who are the baby boomers. You guys all know this . But what is never talked about ever is the other baby boomers. Who were they? After WWI it was the same cause and effect. How did we handle this bunch of retirees. Look at history the whole ugly story is there its just not told. One simply has to look at the last time AMERICA had hyper inflation to understand why it was caused. The people retireing at that time seen their real retirerment income decrease by 75%+. Us baby boomers didn't care. So sad. Now its our turn to be raped by the youth. Differance is this time there will be a fight.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

According to this blog, 40,000 of the jobs (not counting the Census jobs), were temp jobs.

So what made the 162,000 job gains possible in March? In addition to 48,000 jobs officially listed from the census, there were another 40,000 temporary help service jobs. Health care was the next biggest gainer with 37,000 jobs. Health care has been the only industry to consistently add jobs since the recession began in December 2007. It is not an economically sensitive industry. Leisure and hospitality added another 22,000 jobs, manufacturing 17,000 and construction 15,000. Seasonal adjustments, the government statistician's tool for turning a sow's ear into a silk purse, should be considered the source of extra employment in these industries.

If 88,000 of those jobs are illusory (temporary), then the number drops to 74,000, which isn't enough to keep pace with population growth. If we need 150,000 new jobs each month to keep pace with population growth, then we actually lost 76,000 jobs in March relative to population growth.

 

[Nemesis 1]

Repost

 

[woolfe9999]

According to this blog, 40,000 of the jobs (not counting the Census jobs), were temp jobs.



If 88,000 of those jobs are illusory (temporary), then the number drops to 74,000, which isn't enough to keep pace with population growth. If we need 150,000 new jobs each month to keep pace with population growth, then we actually lost 76,000 jobs in March relative to population growth.

Temp jobs are not "illusory." Some become permanent, and temporary hiring is a typical, early stage of job recovery after a recession. Many companies will take on temps because they believe than can absord new workers but want to keep their options open in the near term in case markets do not remain as strong as they appear. Temp hiring is expected at the beginning of an up cycle and is considered good news.

- wolf

 

[dmcowen674]

March figures show biggest job gains in three years

Come on righties, spin, spin, spin.

I'm proud of you guys

My posts were not in vain :thumbsup: