Jackie Walorski for Congress

Entries in Economy (2)

Friday

May042012

Friday, May 4, 2012 at 09:53AM

Jobs Data Point to Sluggishness

By Jeffrey Sparshott and Josh Mitchell

May 4, 2012

WASHINGTON — U.S. job growth slowed again in April, a fresh sign that the economy could be settling into a sluggish spring.

Nonfarm payrolls grew by 115,000 last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, ticked down a tenth of percentage point to 8.1%.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a gain of 168,000 in payrolls and for the jobless rate to remain at 8.2% in April.

On a positive note, March payrolls grew by an upwardly revised 154,000 from an initially reported 120,000, and February payrolls posted a gain of 259,000, compared with an earlier estimate of 240,000.

The unemployment rate has dropped since August, when it was 9.1%, though some of the decline has resulted from people leaving the work force. Federal Reserve officials have said that they expect only gradual progress the rest of this year. The Fed last week forecast that the unemployment rate would fall to somewhere between 7.8% and 8.0% by the end of this year.

If the labor market stalls, the Fed could reconsider measures to stimulate the economy. "If unemployment looks like it's no longer making progress, that will be an important consideration in thinking about policy options," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week.

Friday's report showed that private companies again fueled the growth, adding 130,000 jobs. Governments, meanwhile, cut payrolls by 15,000.

Job growth came from a variety of sectors. Professional and business services, which include temporary help, engineering and software design, added 62,000 jobs. The retail sector rebounded, while health care and manufacturing continued to gain. Manufacturers added 16,000 jobs.

Wages inched ahead. Average hourly earnings rose by one cent to $23.38. Wages were up 1.8% year over year. The average workweek was unchanged at 34.5 hours.

A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those stuck in part-time jobs—was unchanged at 14.5%.

Write to Jeffrey Sparshott at [email protected] and Josh Mitchell at [email protected]

---

Read more at The Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304743704577383713904032818.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories#printMode

tagged

Economy in

Economy,

Jobs

Friday

Mar092012

Friday, March 9, 2012 at 03:01PM

Jobs Recession Now 49 Months: Longest Since WWII

By ED CARSON, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

The U.S. economy added 227,000 jobs in February vs. expectations for 206,000, continuing a recent trend of decent hiring activity. The unemployment rate held at 8.3%.

But America remains mired in the longest jobs recession since the Great Depression. It's been 49 months since the U.S. hit peak employment in January 2008. And with nonfarm payrolls still 5.33 million below their old high, the jobs slump will continue for several more years.

The previous jobs recession record — 47 months — came during and after the comparatively mild 2001 recession, which saw unemployment climb to only 6.3%. The average job recovery time since 1980 is 29 months, not including the current slump.

The labor market won't truly return to health until some 10 million positions are created to rehire all those who lost their jobs and to absorb new workers.

The longest jobs recession in decades coincides, not coincidentally, with the longest stretch of anemic economic performance on record.

U.S. gross domestic profit hasn't risen 4% or more in any quarter since the first quarter of 2006. That's by far the longest such stretch on record going back to 1950. The only other sizable sub-par stretch was a three-year span from late 2000 to mid-2003 during the prior recession and sluggish recovery.

The current expansion, which began in mid-2009, is particularly disappointing, given the deep recession that preceded it. The best growth was a three-quarter run of 3.8%-3.9% gains.

After the severe 1981-82 recession, the U.S. economy enjoyed a five-quarter stretch of 7% or more — following a 5.1% annualized gain.

The U.S. economy is up just 6.2% above the level at the end of the recession vs. 14.9% in the 10 quarters after the 1981-82 slump.

President Obama may take hope that the U.S. economy has picked up from near-stall speed to a modest pace in recent months. But after the mild 1990-1991 downturn, the U.S. economy rose tepidly for a few quarters before growing more than 4% in every quarter of 1992. That still wasn't enough to keep the first President Bush from losing to Bill Clinton.

And nobody is predicting 4% growth in 2012.

---

Read more at Investor's Business Daily: http://news.investors.com/articleprint/603791/201203090838/jobs-recession-is-longest-since-depression.aspx