any port in the storm…

Posted on Friday 5 November 2010


Employers add 151K jobs; unemployment holds at 9.6%
Washington Post

By Neil Irwin
November 5, 2010

Job growth accelerated in October, but the unemployment rate held steady, the government said Friday, the latest data pointing to an economy that is finally strengthening as the year nears its end. Employers added 151,000 jobs last month – more than double what analysts expected – the Labor Department said. That compares with a revised 41,000 jobs lost during September. Analysts had forecast a gain of 60,000 positions, making the report the most promising reading on the economy in a month. The unemployment rate remained 9.6 percent…

October was the first month since last spring to show job creation levels high enough to make, over time, a dent in the nation’s astronomical unemployment. Employers need to create about 125,000 new jobs a month to keep up with an ever-growing population. There has been a string of somewhat better than expected economic reports in recent weeks, including surveys of activity in the manufacturing and service sectors released this week. The economy has been locked in a pattern of steady expansion since the summer of 2009, but since the spring that expansion had slowed too much to bring down unemployment. Overall economic growth was 2 percent in the July-through-September quarter, a bit below the long-term U.S. economic trend.

But the most recent readings on the economy, including Friday’s October jobs report, offer some hope that growth may finally accelerate as 2011 begins. The new reading on the nation’s job market comes two days after the Federal Reserve launched a new effort to pump $600 billion into the economy, an action specifically aimed at trying to break the nation out of its high-unemployment rut…
Something positive. Must check with Krugman…

Age Of Diminished Expectations
New York Times

by Paul Krugman
11/05/2010

So, we have a “strong” jobs report — with total employment still 7 1/2 million less than it was three years ago, we had job gains slightly higher than the number needed to keep up with population growth. At this rate we’ll return to full employment around 2030 or so.
Whoops! But then again, Krugman is in a bad mood so we have to look into it ourselves. Here’s the point:
This graph shows the monthly Jobs Added [Blue+/Red-] figures superimposed on the Unemployment Rate [Orange]. If you look through the years, at some point in a Recession, people start hiring, Unemployment falls, and all’s right with the world.  First, notice what a really big hit this Recession has been. Then look at 2010 [far right] – the Jobs Added piece was on the rise, then sputtered [around May of this year]. Here’s a close-up [Total Jobs in Thousands]:
It’s that up-tic this last month that matters. Krugman is kvetching about its magnitude [I hate it when he’s cranky].  And it only means something if it’s sustained, but it could well be an early harbinger of Spring. I choose optimism. Even if it means people were hiring in anticipation of the Midterm Republican sweep, it’s okay with me. Any port in the storm I always say. The DOW is unimpressed too, but still loves Bernanke’s yesterday announcement:
 
But it’s a positive blip [no matter what our always right Nobel Laureate and our Industrial Index think], and I’m going with it…

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