US unemployment falls

[Scooter]

And Republicans simply don't want the economy to turn around. They want it to tank even further so they have the excuse to finish gutting every piece of socially progressive legislation enacted in the past 80 years.

[dgs49]

I almost spilled my coffee when I read rube's statement above that the republicans in congress have prevented Barry from doing any deficit spending to bring the economy around.

Think about that. A trillion and a half deficit, year after year, and it's only because the Republicans are holding Barry back.

My god.

[liberty]

And Republicans simply don't want the economy to turn around. They want it to tank even further so they have the excuse to finish gutting every piece of socially progressive legislation enacted in the past 80 years.

That would be mistake for the Republicans, they would lose all power which would be a shame ;we need an alternative party. The truth is that most people on the right, center and left like the fact we have social welfare system. We don’t want be a third world country with street beggars and little match girls.

[rubato]

And Republicans simply don't want the economy to turn around. They want it to tank even further so they have the excuse to finish gutting every piece of socially progressive legislation enacted in the past 80 years.

The Republican party agenda is treason. They have consistently and knowingly acted to harm the US in order to get elected to power.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

The truth is that most people on the right, center and left like the fact we have social welfare system. We don’t want be a third world country with street beggars and little match girls.

Lib, why do you hate the Constitution? Don't you realize that the Constitution doesn't grant the government the right to do anything for anybody, ever, any time any where under any circumstances? Why are you on the side of Supreme Court Justices who have been unconstitutionally ruling to the contrary?

[liberty]

The truth is that most people on the right, center and left like the fact we have social welfare system. We don’t want be a third world country with street beggars and little match girls.

Lib, why do you hate the Constitution? Don't you realize that the Constitution doesn't grant the government the right to do anything for anybody, ever, any time any where under any circumstances? Why are you on the side of Supreme Court Justices who have been unconstitutionally ruling to the contrary?

Jim, I am not an enemy of the constitution as feel you know. And I agree that there are limits on what the federal government can do, but show me where in the constitution it says or implies that the national government cannot have a social safety net for it citizens.
You do agree that the power of the states are unlimited except for those protections and restrictions found in the US Constitution. So if a state wants to have medical system like California’s there is no question of unconstitutionality.

[Lord Jim]

Jim, I am not an enemy of the constitution as feel you know. And I agree that there are limits on what the federal government can do, but show me where in the constitution it says or implies that the national government cannot have a social safety net for it citizens.

Lib, maybe I need to add this to my sig line:

[liberty]

You got me Jim. you know I thought that didn’t sound like you and I have accused others not being able to read the inference.

[Gob]

The US economy created 227,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3%, the lowest level in nearly three years.

The Labor Department report also showed that job-creation figures in December and January were even stronger than first estimated.

President Barack Obama said the figures showed the economy "getting stronger".

Employment has been rising for the past six months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.

That, largely, can be explained by the changing size of the workforce.

Americans who had given up looking for work have started streaming back into the labour market.

Those who re-enter the market but do not secure jobs are in effect counted afresh as unemployed.

That's why the unemployment rate in February remained unchanged at 8.3%.


The number of new jobs being created has been consistently above 200,000 in each of the past three months, fuelling hopes that the US recovery is gathering pace.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17311834

[Lord Jim]

Those who re-enter the market but do not secure jobs are in effect counted afresh as unemployed.

That's why the unemployment rate in February remained unchanged at 8.3%.

This is what's going to make it very difficult for that number to drop much for quite some time; there are so many people who left the labor force that might now start again looking for work that the economy could conceivably produce 250,000-300,000 jobs a month and the rate might even go up....

Just as the eventual GOP nominee needs to hope that the unemployment rate doesn't fall much further between now and the election, Obama needs to hope that the legions of long term unemployed remain discouraged and don't start flooding back into the job market, thus driving the the reported unemployment rate up....

So in their own way, both sides have a vested political interest in things that are bad for ordinary people.

[Crackpot]

Face it Jim as long as the ecomonmy keeps adding jobs like it is it's going to look good for Obama.

[Lord Jim]

CP, the political reality is that a large percentage of the electorate focuses just on that monthly reported number, where it is and what direction it's headed in, and doesn't hear or consider underlying explanations for it...

If it's going down they see things as getting better; if it's going up, they see things as getting worse. Polling consistently reflects this.

For the past few months, Obama has been the beneficiary of this. His numbers have improved as that reported rate has declined and his supporters have been able able to crow about "falling unemployment" (despite the fact, as I went over in detail a while back, his policies have had little to do with it.)

The counter argument, which is wholly legitimate, that the primary reason the rate has dropped and doesn't look as bad as it otherwise would is because of the millions of people who have stopped looking for work and are therefore not counted in the compilation of that figure (if the counted work force were only as large today as the day Obama took office...and of course the overall number of folks who actually need jobs has grown considerably since then... the unemployment rate would be over 10%) hasn't gotten any political traction, and has largely fallen on deaf ears.

The converse will also be true, if it happens in terms of political impact .

If the number starts going back up, the Republicans will be pointing to "rising unemployment" and Team Obama's counter argument; that the economy is creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and the reason the rate is going up is because people who left the work force are coming back into it and are again being counted in the number...will be every bit as legitimate as the GOP counter argument has been, and it will be just as ineffective.

If all the folks who have been so discouraged by the conditions of the economy that they stopped looking for work were to suddenly feel hopeful enough to start looking for work again, it would be a political disaster for Obama. It's important to his re-election that this not happen.

It would be nice, I suppose, if the average voter was able to focus on something more complex then one simple number and whether it's going up or down, but the evidence supports the conclusion that they aren't.

[Crackpot]

I think you might have a point if the unemployment rate raises a few points but a single or even a two point rise with good employment numbers isn't going to reflect that poorly on Obama. Since either way the employment picture as a whole would be looking better with people who are no longer looking or underemployed getting better jobs. beyond that if demand is out stripping supply by too much will start looking worse.

[Crackpot]

by the same token if the unemployment rate stays the same (or drops a few points) with anemic job growth wouldn't look good for Obama.