MSNBC: Unemployment Falls to 9%. Net 36,000 jobs in January due to states shedding workers.

[flpoljunkie]

Private employers added 50,000 jobs.

[impik]

1. I understand that the rate falls because people stopped looking for jobs

But why would they stop? I don't get it.

[flpoljunkie]

4. The rate also falls when jobs are created in both private and public sectors

Private employers created 50,000 jobs in January but the cumulative loss was 36,000 jobs because states are laying off workers.

[impik]

6. So, here's my economically ignorant question:

Is this a real improvement or just cosmetics?

[flpoljunkie]

8. Good news. AP: More than a half-million people without jobs found work.

Unemployment falls to 9.0 pct., only 36K new jobs

The Associated Press

Friday, February 4, 2011; 8:37 AM

WASHINGTON -- The unemployment rate dropped sharply last month to 9 percent, the lowest level in nearly two years. But the economy generated only 36,000 net new jobs, the fewest in four months.

The January report illustrates how job growth remains the economy's weakest spot, even as other economic indicators point to a recovery that is strengthening..

Friday's report offered a conflicting picture on hiring. Unemployment fell because the Labor Department's household survey determined that more than a half-million people without jobs found work. The department conducts a separate survey of businesses, which showed tepid job creation. The two surveys sometimes diverge.

Severe winter weather likely reduced the number of jobs created. Harsh snowstorms last month cut into construction employment, which fell by 32,000, the most since May.

In one bright spot, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs, the most since August 1998.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/04/AR2011020401290.html

[ProSense]

9. "In one bright spot, manufacturing added 49,000 jobs, the most since August 1998." Also:

Average hourly earnings rose to $22.86 from $22.78 in the prior month, today’s report showed.

The average work week for all workers fell to 34.2 hours, from 34.3 hours the prior month.

The so-called underemployment rate -- which includes part- time workers who’d prefer a full-time position and people who want work but have given up looking -- decreased to 16.1 percent from 16.7 percent.

The report also showed an decrease in long-term unemployed Americans. The number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or more decreased as a percentage of all jobless, to 43.8 percent from 44.3 percent.

link

[Hillprop]

15. Slightly misleading

This AP report is misleading, 500k people did not find jobs, the Census results were factored in and as it turns out, the labor force is smaller than the models were using. On that same note, recession job losses were worse than originally reported (we lost 9 million during the recession instead of 8), and 2010 saw a net gain of 909k jobs.

[CanonRay]

10. We need 150,000 NEW jobs monthly just to keep up with population growth

let alone reduce unemployment. So, 150000 minus the 36000 net created, leaves 114,000 more people without jobs at the end of the month. I'm no economist, but if it smells and tastes like bullshit, it probably is.

Go here: http://www.shadowstats.com/

[ProSense]

11. We need 125,000 to keep pace. Still

this was a bad month for construction and transportation.

[DrToast]

12. Not true

The main reason the unemployment fell is because of changes to in population estimates from the new census data.
The second reason is because the household survey (where the unemployment rate comes from) showed an increase of 117,000 employed.

If it was because of discouraged workers the U-6 rate would have increased. U-6 also fell from 16.7 to 16.1.

In short, the newer census data suggests the previous population assumptions we were using overstated unemployment.

[Yavin4]

16. "But why would they stop?"

Looking for work after a certain amount of time is a soul crushing experience. For most people, it's extremely difficult to motivate yourself to do something that you perceive as futile.

[treestar]

28. I don't either, or why, at least, do they not find a way to still count

them so that the rate does not go down artificially?

They could have them report in that they are still looking.

Then there is nothing to show that they didn't find jobs later, either. Some of them might have.

[peekaloo]

2. Wow those republicans sure are fixing things in a hurry!

do I really need to post the sarcasm thingie.....but you know they will take the credit.

[dennis4868]

14. Yep....

those votes in the House on abortion, talki about redefining rape, repealing health care is really creating jobs!

[GSLevel9]

17. Who said they want things to get better?

Ss long as the Dems hold the Senate and the WH the pubs can hang the economy around the Dems neck.

[Badfish]

3. good news

[bigdarryl]

5. and the rethugs heads are going to EXPLODE!!!

[fasttense]

7. So when is the corporate aristocracy going to piss out a minimum wage,

no benefits job for me?

After all this is trickle down economics and the uber rich have to keep pissing for it to work.

[flpoljunkie]

13. Mark Zandi said we should be getting better jobs numbers by the spring, summer

He is optimistic and agrees weather caused this month's odd job statistics.

[Cali_Democrat]

18. The expectation was for us to add 145,000 private payroll jobs and we only added 50,000

And as one poster noted above, we're not even close to where we need to be in terms of just covering population growth.

This economy is a sad joke at this point.

[RBInMaine]

21. Your doom and glooming about the economy being a "sad joke" is unfair. We suffered the worst econ

omic crisis in 70 years, a near-depression. Two years ago we were losing 700,000 jobs a month. We have had a net gain in jobs for the last year, and the economy is expanding. Census adjustments, weather issues, and various other arguably anomolous factors have contributed to much this. Many economists are expecting stronger growth for Feb. and continued expansion throughout the year. Let's let things adjust, get through this winter, allow the "second stimulus" to fully kick in, and we'll go from there. Obama said at his inauguration that it would take YEARS to fully recover, and it will. But progress is being made. Maybe not as fast we'd like, but it is being made.

[quiller4]

24. If jobs are added in small business then they aren't counted in

this metric which only reflects hiring by large firms. Most new jobs are in small business. The other thing this metric ignore is the start up of new businesses. In the Western states some areas are setting records with applications for new business licenses. The increase in business licenses and the increase in sales of trade vehicles (cans, heavy duty trucks, etc.,.) are causing a number of economics to offer more hopeful projections about the employment picture.

[former9thward]

19. Canada added 69,000 jobs in the same time period

With 10% of the population of the U.S.

[RBInMaine]

20. Many economists are expecting a spike this month. Census adjustments and weather issues have a lot

to do with these numbers.

[golfguru]

22. Gallup claims unemployment is 9.9%

http://www.gallup.com/poll/125639/Gallup-Daily-Workforce.aspx

[golfguru]

23. 64.2% of work force is employed, lowest in 26 years

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/labor-force-participations-plunges-fresh-26-year-low

[DCBob]

27. If you look at that graph you notice the rate started to decline sharply around 2000..

It leveled off during the Bush bogus boom years then resumed the decline when the recession started. Not sure what the cause is but its clearly not a recent effect.

[golfguru]

31. 2 reasons IMHO

1. Recessions (90%)
2. Extension of unemployment benefits (10%)

[DCBob]

32. Clearly the recessions caused the decline to be much steeper but there must be other factors.. imho

Because even during the Bush bogus boom years there wasnt really any increase.. just a leveling off.. suggesting even in a normal/non-boom economy this number likely would still be in decline. This means that more and more people are choosing not work.. some of it is affected by long-term unemployed giving up but I think there is bigger effect from things such as the following..

-- more people retiring (baby boomers aging)
-- more stay at home moms
-- more students.

With the biggest effect probably from baby boomers retiring.

[high density]

29. Gee whiz, what a selection of dates there

Where was their curiosity with these figures back while Bushco was doing everything it could to make sure jobs were sent overseas?

[Bluenorthwest]

25. we need well over 100,000 each month to keep even with

population growth. So 36K is better than nothing, but is it in fact closer to nothing than it is to the mark we need to make. And we need to make that mark, not make excuses.

[quaker bill]

26. "more than a half-million people without jobs found work"

apparently these jobs were not "created". That said, 500,000 folks without jobs finding work seems a good sign to me.

[TheKentuckian]

30. If job creation doesn't keep up with population growth then we are losing jobs on the net

The numbers are bullshit to mask the scope of the real situation and ignore the accompanying wage destruction of the past generation that has ramped up in the last three years.

This has long been an area of national pathological lying and fudging and has become elevated to an art form over the last decade as flat wages have become too much downward pressure on buying power to be papered over by cheap imported goods and credit. Now as the costs of the imported trash go up in the face of maturing economies and the withdrawal of the credit flow, the majority of us find ourselves working harder and longer for less while the rewards of our labor are funneled to the top 20% and the growth allows for the continuing deception of growth in income.

Lies, deceptions, twistings, and more lies.