U.S. adds 227K jobs in Feb.; unemployment stays at 8.3%

The news we've been waiting for today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/b...st-month-rate-at-8-3.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

This is pretty good news. Enough new jobs that the unemployment rate stayed steady even though 500,000 discouraged workers rejoined the labor pool. And the higher wages suggests employers are hiring because they have to.

There are, of course, caveats.

But overall, this is a pretty positive report.

 

So if unemployment stayed the same and we created 227K jobs, we also then lost 227K jobs?

 

What's the employment participation rate?

 

No; the job creation is a net number: jobs created minus jobs eliminated.

The reason the unemployment rate didn't change is because of rounding. The labor force is something like 160 million people. 227K is about 0.15% of that. So it's possible to add or lose jobs (and increase/decrease the size of the labor force) and leave the unemployment rate unchanged.

In addition there was probably some seasonal adjustment. Whether that helped or hurt the final rate, I don't know.

 

Here's the BLS summary:
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Participation rate rose to 63.9%.

 

What kind of jobs are they? Flipping burgers at some joint is not a job you could live on.

 

Since average wages rose, it's doubtful they were mostly burger-flipping jobs.

 

Average wages include wages of directors of companies getting $10 million a year plus bonus,it does not mean that wages went up for low paid workers at all.

 

Average wages is not proof of one or the other, agreed. I'm just noting that it's unlikely average wages would have risen if most of the created jobs paid at the bottom of the scale.

 

If the people at the top have been getting huge pay packets and they have then average wages would rise,does not matter what wages the others are getting.This all sounds like what happens in the UK where say Tesco say they have created 20,000 jobs but they are crap low wage jobs and most are part time. It sounds good but it is not.

 

Like I said, that could be the case. But it would take a fair number of such people getting paid a lot more than they did last month to make up for 227,000 people being paid minimum wage.

In any case it's speculation.

 

This is good news. That being said ...

What policies are we talking about? I was under the impression that the Republicans were blocking everything the President was trying to do?

 

It's usually because people who considered out of the labor force (i.e. not looking for work) re-enter the market. So if you had a lot of people who gave up looking you could have a month where a lot of jobs are created, but the unemployment rate actually goes up.

 

The most important facator is population growth requires adding a net gain of about 150,000 jobs each month just to keep the unemployment rate steady.

 

More good news on the job front: the US economy added 225,000 jobs; the third straight month jobs growth.

A modest pace but everybody knew that it would take time and effort to work our way out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

In addition, the months of December and January were revised up by 61,000.

The unemployment rate remained at 8.3 percent because more people who had dropped out of the workforce have reentered.

The number of government workers continues to decline.

 

Our RW brethren are still in denial about the jobs market getting better. Should this job market trend continue, I have no doubt, our RW brethren will attempt to take credit.

 

Already a thread on this.

 

It looks like those "evil" Bush tax cuts and the Republican controlled congress are working.

 

I looked, all the other threads were focusing on the Gallup poll.

 

http://www.politicalforum.com/lates...s-227k-jobs-feb-unemployment-stays-8-3-a.html

 

Economists are pointing to a decline in global economic issues such as those in Greece, as well as the decline in worker productivity from last year that is leading to hiring. The Bush Tax Cuts are doing very little to improve the economic climate. If anything, the possibility of them expiring is a cause for concern to employers, and therefore many of them are saving or are utilizing tax havens.

 

Ah, I looked in Current Events.

Mods please combine threads or delete this one.

 

The economy should be roaring at this point after a recession.

Thanks to the failed policies of Obama which have kept unemployment at horribly high levels and lower labor participation to the lowest in modern history, real unemployment remains over 9%.

And what does he offer? Free birth control.

In addition, the months of December and January were revised up by 61,000.

And there are millions more that need to reenter and unless we elect someone who will get the economy rolling there won't be any jobs for them.

How much of that is military cutbacks?

Did you note there were ZERO jobs created in construction, most of the jobs are restaurant and service jobs.

 

merging.......

 

merging.......