Unnemployment rate unexpectedly soars to 6.1%

CBS Marketwatch ^ | 09/05/2008 | Greg Robb

[Glenn]

Nonfarm payrolls decreased by 84,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. These are more job losses than the 75,000 drop expected by economists surveyed by MarketWatch.

The factory sector, especially the auto industry, shed jobs in August. Employment services, considered a bell whether of future labor market trends, also had sharp losses.

[Glenn]

This should make for an interesting day in the market.

[nhoward14]

MSM and community organizers hardest hit?

[Perdogg]

The rise in the unemployment rate was unexpected.

Bravo Sierra

[Rutles4Ever]

We’ve been expecting this for several months. It takes that long for the numbers to show up in the gov’t data.

[icwhatudo]

"U.S. jobless rate hits six-year low
Clinton's euphoric, but news causes stocks to plunge
July 5, 1996
Web posted at: 5:50 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Economists didn't expect June's unemployment rate to be much different from May's, which was an already-low 5.6 percent."

So if 5.6 is "already low" 6.1 should be no big deal in the MSM right?

[Tarpon]

Summers over, minimum wage up, and hurricanes shutting down large swaths of the country.

Democrats are pleased, their drive to increase fuel prices is showing signs of success — Just like Jimmy “dum dum” Cater.

Democrats have already managed to get the budget deficit up to $450 billion from $150 billion ...

So now they can, wait for it, wait, wait --- Blame Bush and claim we have to raise taxes, look at the mess Bush has made of the economy. Never seen so many sadistic anti-American freaks as there are in the Democrat party in myentire life. All these people care about is power, not your library card, nor any of your other rights.

[eyeamok]

looks like the Reid/Pelosi Congress is doing just as they promised, bring misery to all.

[weegee]

On the otherhand, with the end of summer, teachers are back at work.

[Question Liberal Authority]

How many American jobs could be created if we were to build nuclear power plants, coal-fired power plants, drill offshore, extract shale oil and develop the oil fields in North Dakota?

[Perdogg]

I am not sure I understand

“Payroll growth in the previous two months was revised higher by a total of 58,000. June’s payrolls were revised up to a drop of 100,000 from 51,000. July was revised higher to 60,000 from 51,000 previously estimated.”

[Tarpon]

You forgot to put on your “Republican filter” when viewing stats -— LOL

[weegee]

Shh, it’s “mean” to say that only the Republicans want what’s right for America. It’s “mean” to suggest that Democrats believe that what’s bad for Americans is good for Democrats in an election year.

[unixfox]

Liberalism...Spread the Misery!

[Tarpon]

None, only green jobs are available.

Nonsense is rising faster than the sea level.

[stocksthatgoup]

The Jobs rate is a lagging indicator. Like driving backwards looking in the review mirror.

[tobyhill]

Looks like all those “Green” jobs just ain't panning out.

[DallasBiff]

If McCain was smart he would say that our economy is fueled by cheap energy and it is Obama and the democrats who are putting the brakes on ecnomic growth with their economy choking energy and envirowhacko policies.

[CriticalJ]

Did the increase in the minimum wage contribute to this in any way? Also, I wonder if the impending increase contributed to the sluggish economy the first part of the year. Haven’t heard any commentators talk about this and my economics background is pretty light.

[ncalburt]

august is the lowest employed month.

[Neidermeyer]

No filter here ,, my wifes restaurant chain (avg meal approx $26) ,, 20 restaurants ,, projected about a 35% drop in seats compared to 2007 for this week and the actual was 45%.. food cost and personnel costs as a % of gross are out of sight..

[DouglasKC]

Not bad from a historical perspective.

See historical unemployment rate chart on this page.

[ThePythonicCow]

The labor force fell by 8,000 in August.

This is a very strong indicator of a recession, when the number of workers is down from last month. Usually, through strong times and weaker times, the number of workers keeps growing, just at different rates. An outright decline strongly implies a recession.

[Tarpon]

Country first, not Communism first.

The woman who skins moose, cut down Zeus

And when they got there,

The temple was bare,

It was all built of styrofoam.

[DB]

Raising the minimum wage also takes a toll on employment.

[ThePythonicCow]

This should make for an interesting day in the market.

Yes - very interesting. For someone who is short the DOW, short the S&P500, short the financials and long gold, finally I might have a day with nice gains across the board. About time. The waters are still treacherous, and no doubt will continue whipsawing anyone not sensible enough to just sit on the sidelines in savings accounts or T-bills. But it's nice to have a day now and then where one gets on the right side of things.

Sweet.

[ThePythonicCow]

Raising the minimum wage also takes a toll on employment.

Yup - when low wages are illegal, only illegals will have low wages.

[woweeitsme]

Gee...you don’t think this rise in unemployment has anything to do with the increase in the minimum wage, do you?

[DB]

I’d guess the unemployment rate is going to be rising even faster in the MSM jobs department as well all things considered over the last week...

[Tarpon]

What do you think businesses are doing to make up the lost money spent on fuel? The lost customers who won't drive to your place of business? It's deserted at the stores around here, more help than customers. It was only a matter of time before the employees had to go. Look at the devastated auto industry.

Oil driven recession, the liberal love it. Save the planet. Pay more in taxes so government can pretend to control the weather.

Just yesterday, the city said taxes had to go up 20% so the city could keep going, hire more people. Exactly where are the people who live here supposed to get the money? We have the same nincompoops here as is in Washington.

[wbill]

The jobless rate rose for a clear-cut reason - because people lost jobs

There's a Captain Obvious moment right there. Talk about incisive analysis.

[kabar]

Those “American jobs” would probably be filled by illegal Mexicans.

[Red Badger]

Soars?..............I remember when 6.1% would have been heaven...............

[ThePythonicCow]

Not bad from a historical perspective.

Unfortunately, one cannot simply compare numerical rates across long periods of time. The government keeps "refining" the number, usually in such a way that the number gets lower.

[SueRae]

Lots of dinosaur media contributed to the increase

[kabar]

The number of unemployed persons rose by 592,000 to 9.4 million in August, and the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage point to 6.1 percent. Over the past 12 months, the number of unemployed persons has increased by 2.2 million and the unemployment rate has risen by 1.4 percentage points, with most of the increase occurring over the past 4 months.

In August, the unemployment rates for adult men (5.6 percent), adult women (5.3 percent), whites (5.4 percent), blacks (10.6 percent), and Hispanics (8.0 percent) rose, while the jobless rate for teenagers was little changed at 18.9 percent. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.4 percent in August, not seasonally adjusted.

[Cracker Jack]

The labor force fell by 8,000 in August.

Maybe. These numbers are usually released quickly, then revised later as more data comes in. These numbers often look worse for the republicans before they are revised. Do you suppose there are any civil service bureaucrats that would tweak the initial numbers to help Obama?

[ThePythonicCow]

What do you think businesses are doing to make up the lost money spent on fuel?

Lay off, close less profitable locations, cut back, ...

Yup.

With good patriotic Americans like our left, losing our wars, destroying our economy, regulating away our liberty and taking our property ... who needs enemies?

[Tarpon]

It's always to ‘extras’ that get cut first. Food price rise here has made it hard to mkae ends meet, much less go out and eat. Steak prices are now in the $15-20 a pound range. The local restaurants are almost totally deserted. I have a friend just a few houses down who owns one of the most popular local seafood restaurants, he says it's bad, he says he is laying off more people almost every week..

It's sad ... when you let liberals run your life, you are bound to be miserable.

[IYAS9YAS]

Gee, it couldn’t have anything to do with people going back to school, could it?

[ThePythonicCow]

Actually, from what I can tell (which isn't much) the numbers were too good (understating unemployment) the last few months and might be getting closer to real with these numbers.

But yeah, one can trust government numbers about as much as one can trust the testimony of an alcoholic in denial as to how much they drink.

[txrangerette]

I would say this...the 8000 number is quite small. Yes, it went in a negative direction, but on the other hand the numbers are miniscule considering the size of our economy. In addition, it could be revised later on...have to wait and see.

We have had nothing else to indicate a recession. Which, remember, is back to back quarters with negative GDP.

What we have had is sluggishness. Prolonged sluggishness. However, the most recent growth numbers were trending upwards.

Finally, as another mentioned, these are lagging indications. Unemployment is always the last thing to show the ill effects of sluggish or negative growth GDP. It’s like looking in a rear view mirror.

And it will always be the last thing to show a positive turnaround.

Doesn’t mean the sky is falling.

I get so tired of the media saying that something was “unexpected” or “surprising” or “larger or smaller than predicted”.

How stupid is that?

There’s no way to hit these predictions on the head. Fact is, some of the recent data has been much better than anyone “expected”, so if this one is worse than expected, the whole thing evens out.

[quack]

TVA announced that it was increasing rates 20% for energy.Biggest increase ever,while at the same time,giving huge bonuses to contractors who completed nuclear reactor work well behind schedule.

Since 2003,TVA has increased rates by 57%.This,of course,gets passed on directly to the consumer,be it residential or commercial.It's not just fuel increases for employers,but electric bill increases as well.A double whammy for energy consumers.

[Tarpon]

We got slapped with a 20% rate increase starting September.

For some reason they all seem to think increasing people’s cost by 20% is a good number.

It’s only going to increase the “drill now baby” push.

[cw35]

This is near full employment and I know of only a few people who have lost jobs. This number has no meaning to me.

[kellynla]

You want to increase the number of jobs in America?

Start more domestic oil drilling, building more oil refineries, more nuclear power plants and deport the illegal aliens who are taking away jobs that Americans could easily fill...for a fair market wage.

It ain’t rocket science!

Next case...

[Garvin]

” MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE RAISES JOBLESS RATE” there fixed it

[ThePythonicCow]

We have had nothing else to indicate a recession. Which, remember, is back to back quarters with negative GDP.

If you take that as the definition of a recession, then yes it is not yet a recession.

I don't trust key government stats.

[NTHockey]

>>The factory sector, especially the auto industry, shed jobs in August.<<

Nothing new here. August is when auto plants shut down for model year changeovers.

[misterrob]

You want more jobs?

Cut corporate tax rates

Reduce mandates on ethanol based fuel sources

Open areas for drilling and build nuke plants

Reduce government spending by 5% and reduce marginal tax rates again

[kellynla]

and one last thing before I’m off to work here...
want to decrease the unemployment level and make more jobs available to AMERICANS....start fining employers BIG TIME who hire illegals!!!