Data Revision Confirms Weak Jobs Picture

[Spazito]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A warning by the U.S. Labor Department (news - web sites) that it expects to revise down past employment data pours cold water on the view of some economists who believed the jobs market had been improving for some time, analysts said on Friday.



Statisticians at the Labor Department said they expect to revise down U.S. payroll employment by about 145,000 for the March 2003 reference month -- effectively showing even greater weakness in the sluggish labor market than previously thought.


The downward adjustment surprised Wall Street, which had been rife with speculation this week that Labor would adjust the figures up, bringing payrolls more in line with another survey which has shown a recent improvement in the job market.


"The expectation was that this revision would be positive, that we would be looking at a number in excess of 300,000," said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors.

more

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=568&e=3&u=/nm/economy_jobs_revision_dc



(more bad news for Bush)

[demnan]

1. I checked the Washington Post Job classifieds this morning

still obscenely thin - in jobs like mine, programming and IT.

[acmavm]

2. Funny, I heard on one of the news programs this morning that the economy

is rebounding. Of course, I don't suppose the unemployed or under-employed feel that way. Imagine that.

[ixion]

3. need proof? check monster.com

used to be at least 100 IT/IS jobs in the So. Florida region at any given time. Now there are 10 or less.

[Gin]

4. I heard analysts saying the economy is recovering and the increase

in jobs shows that...they also told everyone to buy enron stock while it was tanking. This is all job security for the talking heads.

[are_we_united_yet]

5. Its hard to spell analyst

without (need I go further?)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

14. Same boat here. I've been looking at this more and more, lately:

[stevedeshazer]

17. On a related note:

U.S. Calls, India Answers

<snip>

GURGAON, India Gaurav Mendiratta stammers through a sentence he wrote for a class
assignment.

"This customer is going through a
spay-shal process," reads the tall
22-year-old college graduate, clad in a
white T-shirt emblazoned with a
Ray-Ban logo.

Meinka Sharma, barely 5 feet tall,
perches herself atop the counter
behind him, cranes her neck over his
shoulder and yells: "SPE-SHUL!
OPEN YOUR MOUTH. WHAT'S WITH
YOUR MOUTH?"

Sharma, an instructor for training
company Hero MindMine, is the drill
sergeant for a boot camp in U.S.
Culture 101. She berates Mendiratta
and 15 other students from 6:30 p.m.
to 3 a.m. every day of this late August
week as she coaches them on
handling U.S. customer-service calls. If
they don't get it right, they face her
wrath.

Their reward? Jobs with Hero
MindMine's sister company, making less than $2 an hour working nights.

more: http://oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1065269624154690.xml

[lindashaw]

6. And about that jobs increase on Friday...those were temp jobs...

we learned on CNBC.

[mhr]

8. Link to CNBC on Temp Jobs?

eom

[lindashaw]

10. I don't have a link, I think Stephen Roach was being interviewed...

and he said it. But I could be wrong about the source. sorry

[mhr]

7. Don't You Just Love Being a Statistic

It *****!

eom

[lovedems]

9. My husband is in IT (systems admin)

and he is one of the millions out of work. Under the Clinton administration he changed jobs 3 times, each one a better job and paying more. Now he can't find a job. Wall Street can talk all they want, but we are LIVING it. They can go F themselves and their bright outlooks for all I care.

(Sorry to sound so cynical, but I really hate what this administration had done to this country!)

[mhr]

11. lovedems - No Apologies Needed

You are in good company and not alone.

I have been out of work for 38 months now. A refugee from the telecom industry - very IT dependent.

Last evening I attended a dinner party hosted by an unemployed republican. During the evening, I had an extended conversation with the family matriarch. You could hear the worry and concern in her voice as she was living the nightmare of social and lifestyle downsizing.

Maybe just maybe, some folks are waking up, finally!

[lovedems]

12. Sorry to hear you are in the same boat

It's a drag and it is even more of a drag this administration and congress almost left last year with out extending benefits! I thought we all learned that the trickle down theory doesn't work. The rich keep their money and now apparently the rich (ceo's) will take their business out of country. Unless something happens soon, social and lifestyle downsizing will no longer just be downsizing, but reality. It scares the shit out of me. Is your unemployed republican friend(?) cursing this administration?


btw, my husband is also a refugee of the telecom industry!

[mhr]

13. Well I Wouldn't Quite Say Cursing

But there is some serious reconsideration going on.

One gets the sense that for a lot of republicans there is outright disbelief that this economy could be happening.

I guess in past times these folks were well insulated with cushy jobs.

The trouble is even those cushy jobs are disappearing and that is quite unsettling to the republican crowd.

We will probably see quite a few fur coats traded in for simple cloth pretty soon.

Maybe as refugees from the telecom industry we could organize for benefits from the UN. Our argument would be that we are displaced persons and seek refuge from political tyranny that has harmed us economically.

[Nottingham]

15. Republicans have to really feel the pain before they WAKE UP

just ask yourself are you better now than you were 4 years ago

I think its a resounding NO

:bounce:

[lovedems]

16. It would be a pleasure to see alot less "red suits" and fur coats

that's for sure! Political tyranny, ha ha ha! The UN just might go for it! They are not happy with Bushco.