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ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
Thu Jul 5, 2012, 08:28 AM Jul 2012

What to look for: LINKS to tomorrow's BLS jobs report for June 2012

and to estimates of the likely effects of the President's American Jobs Act

IMO, you simply cannot trust the major media to report the important economic news of the day without putting a sharp Republican political "spin" on it.

One way to avoid falling victim to propaganda is to get the raw news yourself and interpret it for yourself. Here's my 24-hours-ahead primer on how to do just that for the June jobs report tomorrow:

WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?

At 8:30 (Eastern) tomorrow morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the June 2012 employment report, at URL http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm . IMO, the key details for political purposes will be about sectors where Republicans have been carrying out economic SABOTAGE for YEARS. Look particularly at the last columns of lines in Table B-1 (at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t17.htm tomorrow) for "Construction" (about 11 lines from the top) and for "Government" (about 10 lines from the bottom). These figures show monthly job gains or losses, in thousands.

The May report (archived at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_06012012.htm ) showed losses of 28,000 construction jobs and 13,000 government sector jobs.

IMO, these statistics measure part of the sabotage effect of House and Senate Republican blocking of votes on the transportation bill and on President Obama's million-plus-job American Jobs Act, announced last fall. IMO, last month's disappointing jobs report was the first to show unmistakably the fingerprints of Republican sabotage of the economic recovery President Obama engineered over the last 3 years. Stronger reports earlier in 2012 hid Republicans' dirty work, and would have been even stronger without their sabotage.

Look at the IMO likely June drops in construction and government jobs and ask yourself what the overall (non-farm) job growth figure would have been for June without Republican sabotage. Ironically, the Republicans finally are getting what they wanted--weak jobs reports--but the reports may have unexpected consequences for them--exposing their deliberate sabotage of the economy.

Tomorrow afternoon, President Obama will sign the transportation bill, finally approved June 29th after two years of Republican obstruction (see http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002878684 ). I expect the President to stress most of the points I've made here.

IMO the President also will outline again the importance of his American Jobs Act, introduced last fall. John McCain's campaign economist in 2008, Mark Zandi of Moody's, estimated that the AJA would create 1.9 million jobs, take a full percentage point off the unemployment rate, and increase the economic growth rate by two percentage points. See the link to his report and other independent economists' reports at http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/07/economists-president-s-plan-will-create-jobs-now-gop-s-won-t ).

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What to look for: LINKS to tomorrow's BLS jobs report for June 2012 (Original Post) ProgressiveEconomist Jul 2012 OP
Note: Clicking on either of the first 2 BLS links before 8:30 Friday will ProgressiveEconomist Jul 2012 #1
Where to get the best instant analysis of the 830 am announcement ProgressiveEconomist Jul 2012 #2
Consensus forecasts of total nonfarm job gains and the unemploment rate ProgressiveEconomist Jul 2012 #3
Construction jobs were up a puny 2,000, and public sector jobs down 4,000 ProgressiveEconomist Jul 2012 #4

ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
1. Note: Clicking on either of the first 2 BLS links before 8:30 Friday will
Thu Jul 5, 2012, 09:58 AM
Jul 2012

deliver either MAY data or an error message. Look closely at the DATES at the top of the Employment Situation Summary and at the bottoms of tables.

"July 6 2012" indicates that you are looking at June jobs report data.

ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
2. Where to get the best instant analysis of the 830 am announcement
Thu Jul 5, 2012, 12:31 PM
Jul 2012

Steve Leesman of CNBC IMO is the one to watch Friday morning. At 8am, usually a CNBC panel convenes to predict the key jobs numbers. This panel almost always includes John McCain's 2008 campaign economist, Mark Zandi, Chief Economist of Moody's Analytics. After the 8:30 announcement, members of the panel try to explain what the just-released statistics mean.

Some time after 8:30, Steve Leesman usually comes back on the air with his own instant analysis of important and surprising details in the report. His "Unemployment Friday" analyses are by far the most consistently thorough and informative I've ever seen on broadcast or cable.

ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
3. Consensus forecasts of total nonfarm job gains and the unemploment rate
Thu Jul 5, 2012, 05:15 PM
Jul 2012

are 105,000 and steady at 8.2 percent, respectively (see http://biz.yahoo.com/c/ec/201227.html ).

But, according to CNBC, Goldman Sachs has just raised its job gain forecast to 125,000. Still, according to Bank of America/Merrill Lynch analyst Michelle Meyer, the construction sector should remain weak, and government jobs should decline by about 10,000.

ProgressiveEconomist

(5,818 posts)
4. Construction jobs were up a puny 2,000, and public sector jobs down 4,000
Fri Jul 6, 2012, 08:43 AM
Jul 2012

in June, according to the first BLS link in the OP. Overall non-farm jobs rose 80,000, compared to a revised 77,000 for May. Private-sector jobs rose 84,000, compared to a revised 105,000 for May.

The unemployment rate remained the same, at 8.2 percent.

IMO, like the May jobs report, this June report is clear evidence of Republican economic sabotage.

During past recessions, federal government revenue-sharing buoyed state government employment, and infrastructure investment boosted construction employment. IMO, without Republican economic sabotage, the 80,000 net new jobs in June easily could have been at least double that number.

Let's see how many Democrats promote this Republican sabotage message ahead of the President's transportation bill signing this afternoon.

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