EMPLOYMENT REPORT
The employment report was weak across the board as the unemployment rate remained at 9.6% as government employment fell -159,000 reflecting both falling temporary Census jobs and loses of some -76,000 local government jobs in both education and noneducation.
Private payroll jobs expanded by 64,000– about the same as over the last few months.
Hours worked only grew 0.1% and the three month compound growth in hours worked slowed to 1.2% versus a recent peak of 3.7% in June.
Even the diffusion rate continued to weaken.
Average hourly earnings were essentially unchanged and with the drop in total employment this means that average weekly earnings actually ticked down.
The employment report was weak Austan Pangloss Goolsbee’s spin on it was weaker. Talk about cherry-picking the silver linings and burying the big ugly dark clouds in paragraph three!
“Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 64,000 in September, continuing nine consecutive months of private sector job growth. This growth provides more evidence that the economy continues to recover,..”
The employment report was weak Austan Pangloss Goolsbee’s spin on it was weaker. Talk about cherry-picking the silver linings and burying the big ugly dark clouds in paragraph three!
“Today’s employment report shows that private sector payrolls increased by 64,000 in September, continuing nine consecutive months of private sector job growth. This growth provides more evidence that the economy continues to recover,..”
spencer,
A solid presentation.
I may have missed something, but this site seems to have had little to do with the controversy regarding employment issues as defined by structural/cyclical? Not to suggest that you should be responsible for such, but just to put in my $0.02 worth.
I do not think the structural vs cyclical issue is worth wasting my time on.
Total jobs fell. Goods producing jobs, as a group, fell for the first time since February. Jobs ex-Census fell. Fall, fall, fall.
State and local government has been an increasing source of job loss since new budgets went into effect in July. At some point, they’ll reach their target employment level. Until they do, overall employment faces a substantial additional drag. So do unemployment funds, food stamp funds and medicaid. The economy as a whole, already facing a demand shortage, will have a harder time as state and local workers lose jobs.
The good news is, with REOs jammed up, individual home owners who have been waiting to sell will face less competition. We will probably see a drop in sales, but a rise in prices.
The Onion just reported this news:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/bush-still-working-on-manned-mission-to-mars-quiet,18154/?utm_source=recentnews
Maybe we should re-locate George II closer to Houston and rehire all the census workers to work on this project?
Obama could spin it as “reaching across the aisle”.
Cedric,
As I read from the link that you provided, I was torn being amused at, or fearful, that a POTUS said these things:
While in 2004 many critics suggested Bush’s call for a mission to Mars was little more than political theater, the 43rd president has called those claims “ridiculous.” Bush said he has spent many hours scouring the web for information about space travel and Mars, in addition to checking out “a bunch” of books on the subject from the local library and regularly e-mailing contacts he still has at NASA to ask their advice on his plan.
He also frequently watches the PBS program Nova.
“It’s the first thing I think of when I wake up after having some breakfast and doing the crossword,” Bush said. “Ask anyone: Whenever I have a spare minute, I’m always thinking about how to put astronauts on the surface of Mars.”
The former president believes the journey from Earth to Mars will be feasible, although fraught with peril.
“And Laura knows not to bother me on Saturday afternoons when I don’t have a speaking engagement or a golf match to go to,” Bush added. “That’s my Mars time.”
Working from the makeshift basement office he refers to as “Mission Control 2,” Bush said he has grappled with some of the major issues surrounding a manned mission to Mars. For months he’s been jotting down notes about how zero gravity would affect the bone density and muscle mass of the crew, and he spends about five minutes during his morning jog each day coming up with ideas for safely storing a year’s worth of onboard oxygen.
Sometimes, Bush said, potential solutions come not when he’s reading about the Red Planet’s inhospitable surface conditions on Wikipedia or brainstorming shuttle names through free-association exercises, but when he’s not thinking about the historic 34- million-mile voyage at all.
“Just last week, I was out in the garden tending to the tomatoes when it hit me: The astronauts should grow their own food to eat on their spaceship,” Bush said. “I’m not saying I have all the specifics down just yet, but how the astronauts going to Mars will eat is at least one thing the next president won’t have to worry about.”
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If only GW had more free time!
I think cancelling all speaking engagements would be the place to start.
spencer:
Kind of agree with you. This unemployment cycle is almost a decade old.
I hope Webb and Coberly read this. I have been saying for sime time that unemployment is not going away at anytime soon. This is continuing to undermine their sacred cow, SSA. Without new hiring SSA will just throw off more red ink.
Krasting
continues to reveal he understands nothing about Social Security, or paying his bills. apparently he believes that the unemployment problem can be solved by means testing Social Security.