Unemployment rate now 8.9% (Dodd, downturn, March, leader)

[Bluefly]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Bluefly,do you think the supposed drop is the result of the Obama administration actions?

I think it's disingenous for the extremist conservatives who post here to take credit for an economy that has been improving long before January.

You can just look at the thread about the Gallup poll that shows a jump to 10.3%. The same group is blaming Obama and the liberals.

It's just childish partisan hacking, and they hate being called out on it by those of us capable of thinking for ourselves.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by oz in SC

Can the Feb 2011 figures be compared to Feb 2010 and be used to show a drop or an increase?

The 2011 adjustment was 500K more jobs than the BLS thought.
That's a pretty big adjustment.

Also the % of those participating in the labor force changed as well. I think it's 64% now. So that would also change the numbers.
Hard to make a true apples to apples comparison.

I follow shadowstats for UE as they take the raw numbers and plug into the 1994 methodology. In 1994 the USG defined long term unemployed out of existence in their calculations.

I think U6 is a better indicator and that is at about 16%.
Alternate Unemployment Charts

[oz in SC]

Looking at this,you can see that unemployment for 2010 pretty much started and ended the year at similar numbers...http://data.bls.gov/generated_files/graphics/LNS13000000_72875_1299247960498.gif (broken link)

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by las vegas drunk

192,000 jobs were created in February.

Good news.

[oz in SC]

Originally Posted by Bluefly

I think it's disingenous for the extremist conservatives who post here to take credit for an economy that has been improving long before January.

Is it as disingenuous for extremist leftists to do the same in favor of Obama?

[MaseMan]

If a Republican was president and the Democrats still controlled the House, the conservatives on this board would be saying the president was responsible. But since the situation is now reversed, clearly Congress and their bold economic initiatives (which ones, I'm not sure) have solved our employment woes!

Both sides in this discussion could stand to be a little more reasonable.

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Employment Situation Summary

"Nonfarm payroll employment increased by 192,000 in February, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.9 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in manufacturing, construction, professional and business services, health care, and transportation and warehousing.

Those are the sectors where you want to see growth, and the trend has been on those sectors for some time now. It's a good trend, and the right direction.

[oz in SC]

Manufacturing employment rose by 33,000 in February. Almost all of the gain occurred
in durable goods industries, including machinery (+9,000) and fabricated metal pro-
ducts (+7,000).

Construction employment grew by 33,000 in February, following a decline of 22,000 in
January that may have reflected severe winter weather. Within construction, specialty
trade contractors accounted for the bulk of the February job gain (+28,000).

Employment in the service-providing sector continued to expand in February, led by
a gain of 47,000 in professional and business services. Employment services added
29,000 jobs, and employment rose by 7,000 in management and technical consulting.
Within employment services, the number of jobs in temporary help services edged up
over the month.

[LIS123]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

Why not? It's been dropping for a year now.

Ken

What exactly has the great teleprompter-reader done to improve the Economy? Shut down oil drilling in the Gulf? Maybe Obamacare? How about increased EPA regulations and utter contempt of the Florida judge's ruling on Obamacare? What about proposing a budget that gives us $ trillion + deficits as far as the eye can see?

I'll agree with those who think this job creation was the result of the GOP house are also wrong. But it has nothing to do with Obama policies. He has sworn to go after those evil rich people in 2013 and his budget proposal had plenty of tax hikes.

This number means nothing. It's barely more than the number of jobs you need just to maintain the UE rate at the same level when adjusting for the growth in the labor pool (~ 125-140K).

[Finn_Jarber]

Originally Posted by Zimbochick

What I find funny is that now the rate dropped it's a success for the GOP, but had the rate increased, it would have been Obama's fault.

Finger pointing and credit stealing the favorite pass time of all partisan hacks. That will never change. I am just happy the trend has been good. The key point is trend, because one month figure doesn't mean much if the overall trend it bad.