More good news...

[Argilbertson]

The American economy created jobs at a faster pace in February, adding 236,000 positions, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008, compared with 7.9 percent in January. Economists had been expecting the economy to add 165,000 jobs in February, with no movement in the rate.

After peaking at 10 percent in October 2009, the unemployment rate fell steadily for three years but has been stuck at just below 8 percent since last September.


Always good to hear this kind news...

 

[dadofthree]

Where were these jobs added, what type of jobs ? Maybe we need another sequester thingy

 

[Argilbertson]

lol! even the article I took that from predicts that the sequester is coming just in time to screw everything up.

 

[zukracer]

sounds like great window dressing... I'll pose two thoughts on it for the sake of engaging conversation

1) Why doesn't the labor dept count folks that have exhausted their UE payouts but are still UE in their % calculations? (here's a hint: the % is projected at 18-25% UE by many places)

2) Of these "new jobs" how may were people coming off the UE line vs migrating from current jobs
2a) Of the UE line, how many were at various lengths on UE? Probably impossible to get that level however it would be interesting
2b) How many of the jobs were taken by folks exceeding the UE payment plan?
2c) How many of those jobs were taken by US citizens vs visa holders of some form?

Again, not meant to pick a fight, just open discussion on the topic

 

[shawnski]

you really believe what you read

<iframe width="500" height="323" src="http://www.ispot.tv/share/7VOE" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Argilbertson]

you really believe what you read?????

I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic.

zuk: I dont know off hand...not even sure if or where you could get the asnwers to that.

 

[m_ridgeway]

I wonder how many are seasonal construction like what I do. We're about to be the busiest our company has ever been due to oil and gas. Projects like the keystone pipeline and gathering systems on all the shale work are about to really pick up

 

[zukracer]

I'd rather be optimistic than pessimistic.

zuk: I dont know off hand...not even sure if or where you could get the asnwers to that.

yeah, that was sorta the point True labor statistics collected by the govt seem like window dressing more than anything. Like with any statistics you can make the numbers say/support any position given the right knowledge of the goal. A true measure of how great or fekked the economy is, from a jobs perspective, needs IMHO to include those types of metrics. They cannot say where the jobs are, who's taking them, if they are getting folks off the govt dole into the work force, etc. Now if they could and I saw positive growth in folks moving from UE to employed I would be thrilled