Posted on 02/05/2010 9:02:59 AM PST by blam
U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls: Clear Signs of Improvement
by: Zacks.com
February 05, 2010
While the number of jobs lost was relatively greater than expected, the overall unemployment rate came down to under 10%. There are other positives in today’s report as well, particularly with respect to revisions, temporary hirings and length of work week.
The Labor Department reported today that the U.S. economy shed 20,000 jobs last month, weaker than the expected 5,000 gain for the month. Importantly, the unemployment rate fell to 9.7% from 10% last month. The expectation was for the unemployment rate to inch up to 10.1%.
Signs leading up to today’s report were mixed, at best. The fourth-quarter GDP read was a major positive. I will chalk up the ADP report early this week to the positive column as well. Incidently, the ADP appears to have been not that off the mark, after all. On the negative side, we had yesterday’s initial claims report remaining in its three-week uptrend.
On the revisions front, the picture was relatively mixed. The December number was negatively revised: originally we had 85,000 jobs lost in December, which has now been increased to losses of 150,000. But the November number had a positive revision. Recall that the November number was revised last month to a positive job gains of 4,000.
That was, in fact, our first positive monthly jobs number since the start of this recession in December 2007. The November jobs gain number has now been juiced up some more -- the current revisions put the November gains at 64,000 jobs instead of only 4000.
Among other positive signs in this report, the average work week increased by 0.1 hours to 33.3 hours. And it continued with the trend of the last few months of continued temporary job creations.
[snip]
I’m feeling giddy all over today. We’ve turned the corner finally.
;)
Yeah me too. No mention to the +920,000 unemployed that was added by the BLS to year 2009 ... So the sheep won’t notice. So what’s that do, adding about another million to the unemployed, makes the real unemployment rate about 22%.
Mixed lies at best.
;-) for sure......................
The few people I know who are working full time right now work for some form of government.
The rest, especially in my line of work, are not working and have been unemployed or underemployed for at least a year.
Sorry, It will be revised up soon! They are manipulating the figures at labor Department.
The economy lost 20 k jobs, while gaining 5k jobs is only weaker than expected?????
I think the important fact is the economy actually lost 15 k jobs. A pretty weak argument. In fact the spin of this by the Labor Dept is down right deceptive after reading between the lines.
Stupid. More unemployed. %Rate goes down. Who is kidding who?
The most important thing for the GOP is to talk, talk, talk the economy down, down, down.
This is a statistical annomoly. If we lost jobs and the rate still came down, then the pool must have shrunk. 1,300,000 people gave up looking for jobs in January alone. How anyone could find this good news is revolting. I am so sick of the liberal spin to everything.
"Government says figures are expected."
"Government says figures are unexpected."
As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a 'categorical pledge' were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.
(1984)
Praise be Lord Obama. He has saved us from Bush’s economic collapse.
On your mark! Get set!.......nothing. The January nonfarm payroll report showing a further 20,000 job losses certainly left traders scratching their heads. (click here for the link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics release at www.bls.gov/news.relea...)The unemployment rate dropped from 10% to 9.7% on no net hiring. November and December showed a net -5,000 in revisions. But the number of jobs lost in this recession since it started in December, 2007 was revised up from 7.2 million to 8.4 million. There are now 14.8 million “official” unemployed, a figure absolutely no one believes. Benchmark revisions are to blame. The monthly statistic has become so politicized and so tampered with to render it meaningless. Without the annual revisions the unemployment rate would be 10.6%, not exactly the headline the Obama administration is looking for. For me the conclusion is unequivocal. Companies aren’t hiring. Maybe that’s was the Dow’s 8% swoon is telling us. Checking out these amazing series of graphics sent to me by a reader chronicaling the spread of unemployment in the US since the recession began. Just click on the link and hit the “play” button. cohort11.americanobser... -- Mad Hedge Fund Trader
In other words, this article is pure drivel.
I just got hired as a part time Census worker... how many jobs is this accounting for?
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