And you wonder why my newsletter references Alice, the ultimate contrarian? These clowns make me money, but still it does not make destructive policy right now does it?
"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise, what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise, what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Financial markets can be excused for seeing in today's jobs numbers a mirror image of the long, hot summer weather blanketing the United States.
The latest employment figures show that the private sector added a total of 71,000 jobs in July, with overall payroll employment falling by 131,000 due to the layoff 143,000 temporary Census workers last month and the continued lay-offs by state and local governments. The economy has added 630,000 private-sector jobs in 2010, yet much of the labor-market data is taking on an 'L' shape, not getting worse but also not significantly improving -- just like the sweltering ups and downs of our summer of discontent.
Enough with the weather references already.
The last two recessions also saw slow job growth in the early months of recovery, but those two employment recoveries followed lower overall job losses than in the Great Recession.
'Great Recession', is that what these knuckeheads are calling this? A great recession? How about a great and natural deflationary need to correct decades of excess, greed, malfeasance and outright criminality? Is that too strong a descriptor?
To be sure, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act saved or created 1.2 million to 2.8 million jobs, and without it, we would have had 8.7 million to 10.3 million jobs lost instead of the 7.7 million we have actually lost. But we are not seeing robust employment growth yet. Unemployment remained at 9.5% in July and over the last quarter the annualized rate of wage growth for rank-and-file workers was 2.1%, above the annual rate of inflation of 1.1%, as measured by the consumer price index.
Fuck you, Keynesian blue pill popper. The GREAT DEPRESSION was prolonged by this kind of policy and that is what will happen in your "great recession" as well. Please remove your head from your ass. The only thing I am sure of about the ARRA is that it put a hell of a lot of unions to work at over time and it drew and spent funds in a non-productive manner, much of it printed out of nowhere by a huge and non-productive entity.
Combined, these trends continue to be the biggest threat to labor market stability in the months to come. Weak consumer demand is a chicken-and-egg story: Consumers get their spending power from their earnings, but weak hiring and wage growth will continue to put constraints on how much money consumers have in their pockets to spend.
Stimulate demand! WE HAVE GOT TO STIMULATE DEMAND! Despite attempts to make the appearance of a recovery, these stubborn bastards just are not buying it! Them and their stupid Tea Party and new-found sensible living within their means. This is un-American I tell you!
The sharpest private-sector job gains this year were in March and April, with the pace of job growth slowing since then. This is a worrying trend. Manufacturing continues to add workers, adding 36,000 jobs last month for a total of 183,000 new jobs since the low point in December 2009. Motor vehicles and parts grew especially strongly in July, adding 20,700 new jobs.
Certainly, the labor market is improved over this time last year, but, at the pace of job creation over the past three months, it would take over six years to regain the jobs lost since the Great Recession began in December 2007, let alone provide jobs for our ever-growing population.
Oh, the 'Great Recession' Began at the end of 2007, did it? Is that what your official statistics indicate? Maybe so, but anyone with eyes who chose to see knew this was coming for years before. A crash of the unsustainable, that is what your great recession is and if the bone head policies you (and Krugman) advocate are once again put forth, a crash of the unsustainable will likely repeat as in wash, rinse, repeat until your kind are swept out of the public debate one day into a new system.
There appears to be little pressure building for future hiring. After rising sharply in late 2009, temporary-help hiring slowed considerably in early 2010 and has been essentially flat for two months now. Further, while average hours of production and nonsupervisory employees rose from 33.4 in June to 33.5 in July (which is where they were at in May), the average workweek remains where it was in late 2008.
Duhhh, are you the brightest thinker at your progressive think-tank?
State and local governments have been adding to our nation's unemployment woes in recent months by laying off workers. State and local governments (except Vermont) cannot run budget deficits, which means that as unemployment has led to declining tax revenue, they have become increasingly spending-constrained. State governments shed 10,000 workers and local governments 38,000 workers in July. Both have been shedding workers for two years now.
FIX MORE BRIDGES I TELL YOU!
Those without a job continue to have an exceptionally hard time finding work, and there are also indications of an increase in newly unemployed workers. The number of workers who have been unemployed for five weeks or less was higher in July than in any month since January, which is consistent with recent reports of rising applications for unemployment benefits. There are 6.6 million workers who have been out of work and seeking a job for at least six months, and as a share of the unemployed, this continues to be at near-record highs, at 44.9% in July.
We get it, things suck. Now, hurry up and get to the punch line.
The number of people reporting having a job fell for the third straight month in July, with 159,000 fewer employed workers. The employment-to-population ratio also fell again in July, down to 58.4%, and is now where it was in January. Among adult women, the employment-to-population ratio fell to 55.4%, only a tenth of a percentage point above the Great Recession low, while for adult men, remained at 66.9%, six-tenths above the historic low of 66.3% hit in December 2009.
Wait for it...
Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to put our economy on the right track. And the evidence is clear that these policies certainly helped.
'help[ed]' as in past tense, as in not sustainable.
But we still have work to do.
I'll bet you do...
There continues to be an important role for policymakers to spur the economy. The state aid package that passed the Senate this week is an important step forward, but Congress should consider additional steps to get people back to work, such as direct job creation and ramping up our national service programs.
Go fuck yourself. I am getting tired of this punch line, over and over and over again... less and less of a proportion of the populace believe this silliness anymore. Who do you think you are? Oh right, senior economist at the Center for American Progress.
Heather Boushey is senior economist for the Center for American Progress, a progressive think-tank based in Washington.
