Only 18,000 jobs created and unemployment on the rise
By John Amato Thursday Jan 03, 2008 6:35pmAnd the stock market responds:
Hiring in the U.S. slowed more than forecast in December and unemployment jumped to a two-year high, raising the odds that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by half a point this month to ward off a recession.
Payrolls rose by 18,000, capping the worst year for job creation since 2003, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate increased to 5 percent from 4.7 percent in November, while the Institute for Supply Management said growth in U.S. service industries cooled last month.
Short version: this number stinks all the way around; there is no upside. For people that have been arguing for a recession it adds a ton of fuel to the fire.
The Saturday morning stock shows should be very entertaining. Those free market/Milton Friedman zealots will be screaming that it's all Bernanke's fault. If there is a hell, they should rot there. Naomi Klein discusses these whackos quite vividly in her wonderful book.
Login or Register to post comments.
Sort of related: Tucker says Edwards failing to get the Union vote is like Hillary failing to get the support of abortion doctors...
Is he fired yet??
Wait'll next year, when all the dummies, perverts, and assorted miscreants currently employed by the Bush administration are out walking the streets of D.C., looking for pimps/agents.
The unemployment rate is going to go out of sight.
I was waiting for you to post something on this, John.
The stock market continues to dive.
I've said it before: Get your 401ks in order because that money is earmarked to be transitioned from your accounts to the pockets of the pricks who have destroyed our economy.
Bush came on after his pow-wow with his $$$ gurus...and he looked like a deflated balloon..."economy is stable"....how can he say that...???
market sank after his pep talk...How many companies did he ruin ? ( it was not just Harken....)Be must have been great at lying to his CEO's....and TAX Cuts ????that is his solution...helping out his rich friends...and how can the GOP not realize the Economy is an issue ( well, Hill doesn't either...)...I hope the DEMS keep working this issue on the trail..
Preacher Boob @ 2:
It will actually be up for lawyers as many in the Boosh admin will be looking to ward off all of the indictments.
All the repub candidates are all running on the idea that the economy is fine. All of the candidates support Bush's economic policies. They can't acknowledge that the economy is bad without losing their fiscal cred because they'd need to admit Bush's tax breaks were a bad idea.
Boy, are they going to get hammered in the general election.
The unemployment numbers under chimpy was always a play on smoke and mirrors anyway. The true unemployment numbers are alot higher than 5%. There is no way you can tell me we have low unemployment with an entire city's population still by and large displaced.
estimates were in parts of the country that between 12 and 15 percent were unemployed in 2005, most of them NOT being tracked by the Bureau of Labor.
This clearly calls for another tax cut for the wealthy.
Don't worry. AP reported today Bush is considering a Tax Cut to save the economy.
A whopping $500.00
Anybody else suspect that Elaine Chao and the rest of "Team Enron" might have been, say, cooking the books on unemployment numbers for the last little while?
It's going to get worse. The dollar is sinking, too.
L.A. Confidential @ 10:
Private economists said another round of tax cuts would be the best approach to get money to people who would spend it.
Some suggested a one-year tax rebate of $500 might provide a sufficient shot-in-the-arm for the economy. But they stressed that the proposal would have to be passed quickly.
"The critical time is the first part of this year. If it doesn't get passed until just before the November election, it will be totally useless," said David Wyss, chief economist at Standard & Poor's in New York.
No politics there. Nope.
L.A. Confidential @ 10:
Chimp change.
nonbeliever @ 7:
Yeah, well they got real creative. Quit counting you as unemployed once your unemployment benefits ran out. Voila! You don't exist any more.
Leave it to W to break a record for least growth... since W broke a record for least growth.
Jo @ 12:
Most people don't realize just how fragile this mess is. They didn't in 29 either. Until one day all of a sudden the bottom fell out.
Maybe the Feds can keep it propped up by shoveling paper into the system. We're going to find out soon. The Feds are playing a very dangerous game to keep their and Wall Streets asses covered.
Golden shower economics at their very best.
swarmofkillermonkeys @ 18:
Ahhh...so that's how people become piss poor?
hope @ 19:
Indeed! :lol:
L.A. Confidential @ 17:
When Canadian $100.00 bills are selling on eBay for $130.00 you know people are getting nervous.
Bush will not be employable is a few short months.
2 hours, 50 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is going ahead with a controversial pilot program giving Mexican trucks greater access to U.S. highways despite a new law by Congress against it.
Another Friday night special that would have slid by un-noticed by the general public.
Captain Kangaroo @ 22:
He will make millions on the talk circuit. And the royalties on his new book "How I Fucked the U.S. of A. and Got Away with It" will be just rolling in.
Jo @ 24:
Right he'll do the shows also and the entry music when he walks out on stage to an applauding auudience will be, "I took the blows. and did it myyyyyyyyyyy Wayyyyyyyyyy."
L.A. Confidential @ 25:
Oy! Frankie is turning in his grave already.
L.A. Confidential @ 25:
A pair of Orange Jumpsuits and two tickets to the "tropical paradise" (Gitmo) for BushanDick.
maybe cutting taxes and borrowing the shortfall from asia wasn't such a good idea after all. i propose we start taxing millionaires at 70% in order to bring them closer to reality.
tr @ 28:
Where are the paulbots to tell you that you are silly because we don't need the IRS. We'll repay the shortfall with the power of puppy kisses and unicorn rainbows!
Eschew party.
Adhere to principle.
what does Former Sen Lott care........he just opened his lobbiest firm up with Breaux........
It's because of the recession Bush inherited from Clinton 7 years ago!
Your right, Marx and Lenin should set at the throne in heaven because there policies worked so well..... The market works
Gold and oil are at all time highs and the U.S. dollar is being dumped throughout the world . But "the economy is stable" . Praise the Lord , suckers .
swarmofkillermonkeys @ 20:
That was comedy!!! :lol:
Jo @ 12:
And with the FOMC idiots continuously cutting interest rates to artificially boost the stock market, the USD is only going to get even worse. Are we going back to the stagflation (inflation + recession) days of the 70's? Very yes.
tr @ 28:
And they'll still pay only 5% thanks to loopholes large enough for them to drive through a freight train full of cash. Hey, I have no problem with a flat tax, as long as there is no absofuckinglutely way for the wealthy write off any of their income.
I shouldn't have to click through three blogs to get to an actual article.
Sam Seder made the point on the Randi Rhodes show today that if you eliminated the 50,000 (?) government jobs that were created from that list, the private sector actually lost 32,000 jobs DURING THE CHRISTMAS TEMP EMPLOYMENT SEASON when stores are usually hiring extra help for the holiday season... typically one of the best months of the year for employment figures.
If this is what the job numbers look like in December, what will they look like in March???
Off topic:
Can somebody explain here why the lay out of C&L is all fucked up? My 17" screen is all of a sudden not wide enough and it there's one thing I loathe it's horizontal scrolling. Strange thing is that when you open a topic, the lay out is correct again.
[It's not messed up for me-Sitemonitor]
Herbert Hoover created more jobs during his presidency than gee dumbya.
Heckuvajob george, Misery Accomplished.
gwb jr, Worst President Ever! That is a FACT!!
so let's see...Bush kept the TRUE unemployment number low by simply not starting from the correct Base Count. and started his count from his much smaller millionaire base or such. and as all we good students here know, all you do is reduce the Base Count and the resulting unemployment percentage is artifically smaller. the red states somehow blissed this and missed this until it affected them. aren't lobbyists cute? but what's the point of giving a tax cut to corporate welfare recipients? well, gentle reader, if you're Bush, you reward them for strip mining the country. did we look at how many of those jobs are at walmart? haven't heard that. we know it's not in manufacturing. we know it's not in REAL JOURNALISM. (loved the John Hockenberry piece connecting NBC and GE to the bin Laden Family by the way. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19845/page1/?a=f ) so where are they? guest workers I suppose.
We must give credit where credit is due. The republican party is responsible for all 18.000 new jobs created.
They are the new hires of the RNC, assigned to bribe voters to 'Vote Republican', hack voting computers, and include those assigned to swell the ranks of the 'Swift Boaters'.
One of the great lies of the offshoring interests is that US manufacturing is in trouble because of poor US education and a shortage of US scientists and engineers. Pundits such as Thomas Friedman have helped to spread this ignorance until it has become a dogma.
The fact of the matter is that the offshoring of US engineering and R&D jobs and the importation of foreign engineers and scientists on work visas have combined with educational subsidies to produce a surplus of American scientists and engineers, many of whom are unable to find jobs when they graduate from university or become casualties of offshoring and H-1b visas.
Corporate interests continue to lobby Congress for more foreign workers, claiming a non-existent shortage of trained Americans, even as the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology concludes that real salary growth for American scientists and engineers has been flat or declining for the past 10 years.
What economist has ever heard of a labor shortage resulting in flat or declining pay?
There is no more of a shortage of US scientists and engineers than there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The US media has no investigative capability and serves up the lies that serve short-term corporate and political interests. If it were not for the Internet that provides Americans with access to foreign news sources, Americans would live in a world of perfect disinformation.
I heard Rush today going on and on about how good the economy was. He just isn't spouting talking points; he really doesn't have any clue. His ditto heads get so confused when he tells them that they aren't hurting. Just because half their paycheck goes into the tank and the other half was withheld for health insurance doesn't mean that they aren't doing great.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
hey you could fill your gas tank up twice and but two packs of cigs with that much!
Jo @ 21:
Either that, or it simply means that some people are *really really* stupid.
tyree @ 46:
Compassionate conservatism at its best: "We f*ck you, however we leave you with enough to afford a nice smoke after the screw..."
swarmofkillermonkeys @ 18:
But no worries, there will be plenty of supply siders who will try their best to have us believe that liquid falling on us from the top, is really not that yellow, and it is the natural coloration of pure, top of the line, mineral water.
And then the libertarians will scream about us peasants not to rock the boat, after all we should ever be so grateful that the people at the top decided in their infinite wisdom to shower us with such tasty and pure water!
Who would have though a life long failure, like Bush the 2nd, would make such a fuck up of a president, eh?
Captain Kangaroo @ 22:
He'll probably be safely ensconced on the family's new "compound" in Paraguay. Hopefully, we'll never have to hear from that miserable little twit again unless we can find some way to extradite his ass back here to face the mess he's made of this country.
you need to create 150,000 jobs a month to meet population growth but the supply siders pretend "Bush's tax cuts are working!"
The December job numbers may be even worse than have been reported.
“According to the December (U.S.) Jobs report, the real estate sector added 5,400 jobs in the month and is even above the number for December of 2006. How can that be, when real estate agents are fleeing the business?”..
” NAR’s chief economist (said)earlier this week that a quarter of all real estate agents in California didn’t even make a sale in 2007″
http://www.cnbc.com/id/22505383/site/14081545
This wouldn't be the first time you heard the phrases "real estate agents" and "completely wrong statistics" in the same sentence.
It seems that it took some time to pass for the average US citizen to see just how bad of shape the United States is in. Bush and the GOP have run the country over a cliff. Can the next President save the country and get its affairs in an organized correct order? As a great GOPer once said, "Who Knows?"
Am I better off now than I was four years ago? Hell no.
Jo @ 24:
The poker table was piled high with bets both cash and promissory notes…
Bushco raised the blue dogs who called all in. The biggest pot in the worlds history was at stake…bushco dealt the hand from the bottom of the deck Reid and Pelosi folded and the USA was bankrupt… corporate America walked with the pot.. Us citizens pulled out our empty pocket and walked away into the dark night. Stock market has lost the 2007 gains in two days.
Think about it @ 33:
Hey moronic contard,
You clowns called FDR a "marxist-commie-pinko" too when he rescued America from the last REPUBLICAN Great Depression!
Yup, you cons are done !! 2006 was just harbinger of what's in store for you corportist fascists. Or as FDR called you, "Economic Royalists"
Edwards is the 2nd FDR and you chickenhawk frauds are scared of that !!
Blue Buddha @ 36:
You nailed it. Now explain to the nice chimp what that means in terms of quality of life, public services, housing costs food and free time. Thanx
Blue Buddha @ 37:
More likely the pull out and sit on the sidelines or go on extended vacations...just not participate.
It has gotten so bad not even Labor Secretary Chao can cook the books anymore
Mugsy @ 39:
You've got a point there. Woohoo! I'm going to rake in the cash by shorting the USD on Feb. 1st!
"there is no upside"
there is one upside.
things will really start going very very wrong with the economy around the time of the general election.
it will be a damning legacy for the bush administration and the deathknell of the gop's chances for retaining the white house.
The number have been stinking ever since bush was appointed.
We are way behind on job creation and have been for seven years.
The greed that is bush/chenny/corporate/cabal has taken their share off the top and screw everyone else.
under the bush regime we have had a few million new job when it take 150,000 a month to keep up with the people entering the workforce that would be 12,000,000 million jobs not three.
Stop letting these bastards lie and get by with it!
YOU ARE ONLY COUNTED FOR THE FIRST SIX WEEKS ON THE UNEMPLOYMENT ROLLS BY THE DEPT OF LABOR, AFTER THAT YOU DON'T COUNT IN THE UNEMPLOYED PERCENTAGE!
When Clinton left office there were roughly 5,692,000 unemployed. Bush with a full year to go, the unemployed numbers stand at 7,078,000, or roughly 1,386 million more unemployed since the beginning of 2001!
Or you could look at it this way, every month since Bush took office 84 months ago, there has been negative job growth. Every month since Bush's inauguration, another 16,500 people lost their jobs!
According to the Dept of Labor, it takes roughly between 190,000 and 210,000 NEW JOBS just to break even after lay-offs, deaths, retirements, firings, jobs going overseas etc!
The casinos are raking in the money from desparate people trying emergeny attept to save thier ass, but not only are those crooks robbing people blind, they are taking the winnings overseas were the actual owners of Harrahs casinos reside. Dubai
The only reason we created a few jobs was Christmas they hired new temp workers take that away and it would really look bad, also when employment runs out you do not count any more that way it does not look as bad for the idot bush.
Noami Klein has boldly gone where Greg Palast has gone before.
Ruthless People @ 32:
Voted for the Chimp twice, didn't ya!?
Filthy Harry @ 6:
--------------------
Cycles complete themselves. after inflation, comes deflation.
Tax hikes were a bad idea. Tax breaks were a bad idea. Yin and yang. a cycle.
Every bubble bursts. yet everyone loved the stock bubble while prices were rising rapidly.
Every boom ends in a bust. yet everyone loves a roaring economy.
Everything is a bad idea, eventually. That is why there is always a call for change.
Jo @ 12:
------------------
Of coarse it is going to get worse. Did you pay no attention to the stock and housing bubbles, built on a credit bubble? Every boom ends in a bust. There are no exceptions.
The Coolidge era boom and the Clinton era boom are destined to end tha same way.
The details will lnot repeat exactly, but they will rhyme.
Red Bear Running @ 64:
--------------------
What happened in 1930, after the roaring 20''s boom?
Slabo @ 56:
---------------
The Great Depression lasted through the 1930's. FDR did not save anyone from it.
Ruthless People @ 32:
-----------------
It was Greenspan's recession. Volker raised rates and caused a recession when Carter was President. Volker dropped, then raised rates even higher, to 20%, when Reagan became President. Another recession followed. Greenspan raised rates going into the 1990 recession. Greenspan raised rates in 1999-2000, rsulting in a recession in 2001. Greenspan/Bernanke raised rates, resulting in what seems to be another recession.
tr @ 28:
---------------
No idea is good, afterall. The law of cycles prohibits it. If sonmething actually worked, polititiians would not constantly be talking of needing change.
These numbers are just people who lost there job for the first time in there life. Arent they? I usually get layed off alot in the construction trades(2to3 times a week when its busy). So I probably get left out. Boo Hoo!!
temps dont count
Anyone who refers to proponents of free markets as 'whackos' just isn't interested in a serious discussion.
gator80 @ 77:
The only time free market proponents want the markets truly "free" is when they are making money. But now, with the credit crunch, housing bubble, and falling stock prices, they want the big, bad, government to step in and bail them out of their greed and incompetence.
If every economic number is cooked, elections stolen, wars started based on lies, chemicals in our water, ports sold to foreignors, immigrants coming here illegally. Why wouldn't an intelligent person want to question 911 commision who were all appointed by Bush.
Login or Register to post comments.