White House: August jobs report reassuring

[sabra]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - The White House on Friday greeted a better than expected August employment report as reassuring news after a recent spate of "unsettling" economic data, and reiterated it was working with Congress to take additional steps to boost U.S. growth and hiring.

"Against the backdrop of some unsettling economic data in the past few weeks, today's numbers are reassuring that growth and recovery are continuing," said Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

"At the same time, the fact that the growth of private sector payrolls is below the level needed to keep up with normal growth of the labor force is obviously unacceptable," Romer, in her last day at the CEA, said in a statement.

The August employment report showed a bigger-than-expected rise of 67,000 in private payrolls, while unemployment inched up a tenth of a percentage point to 9.6 percent.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6822LI20100903

[onehandle]

1. Speaker Boehner thinks so too. nt

[bushisanidiot]

2. It's going to take a couple of years for President Obama to get us out of Bush's recession.

Bush f*cked up our economy in every way his pro-big corp. and pro-war advisors could think of. Progress is coming and I am cheering for my president as he puts those pieces back together.. one piece at a time. Measured improvement = success.

[nyy1998]

11. +1

[Hawkowl]

3. Idiots!

Unemployment rises to 9.6% and it is reassuring?

He should be beating the drum on how the Rethuglicans are imperiling the economy by holding up small business loans, and holding up unemployment benefits. Instead lets give the rethuglicans a club to beat us with. Fools!

[Lucky Luciano]

6. He chastised the thugs for just that at a speech he gave around 1015 edt. nt

[Roland99]

9. 67,000 private sector jobs added is halfway decent news

The overall rate went up partly as there was a net job loss due to temporary Census jobs ending.

[sabra]

10. AP: Both June and July's figures were revised to show the private sector created more jobs

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNiyJ905Ho0Ur96V2TQhsBX19lGwD9I0H5100

<snip>

Both June and July's figures were revised to show the private sector created more jobs in both months. The July figures were revised upward to 107,000 from 71,000. June was revised upward to 61,000 from 31,000. The revisions reflected smaller losses in construction, temporary help services and non-census government jobs.

[earthside]

4. This is insane.

How delusional.

About 100,000 jobs lost.
67,000 new hires.

A net loss of 54,000 jobs.

Unemployment rate up to 9.6 percent.

And this is "reassuring"???

There is nothing deadlier for a politician than to be perceived as 'out-of-touch' with the struggles and suffering of the American people.

It is politically smarter to acknowledge the plain truth and come up with bold (I repeat "bold") plans to do better.

The unemployment rate is up ... repeat that: the unemployment rate is up.

Any Democrat running for office that doesn't speak the truth is going to be seen as delusional and will be defeated.

It is past time to get serious about rebuilding manufacturing jobs in this country, taxing the super rich, cutting the Pentagon's budget, passing EFCA, etc.

If Pres. Obama doesn't come out boldly for those kinds of changes next week, well then, we all know what is going to happen in November.

[ixion]

5. "In an insane society, the sane man must appear insane"

hence, I agree: We are living in an insane society.

[chill_wind]

7. Ignoring angry Independents especially is pure folly right now.

" And one look at the unemployment rate among independents makes it easy to understand their growing discontent. In an analysis prepared for DailyFinance, Gallup monthly polls reveal that in the last six months, the jobless rate among Independent voters is higher than for both Democrats and Republicans at least 50% of the time. In March, for instance, when it was at the highest level, a Gallup poll revealed that 12% of Independents were without a job, compared with 11% of Democrats and 6.5% of Republicans.

"The Independent voter anxiety started with TARP money for big banks, then shifted to unease over the stimulus package," says Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at The Cook Political Report. "Then, when the Administration completely ignored their increased anxiety over the economy and jobs and instead chose to focus on health care -- that was the end of it for Independent voters."

Frustrated With Both Parties

According to the latest Gallup poll, 40% of Americans identify themselves as Independent, a higher percentage then either Democrat (30%) or Republican (26%). That's up from 33% Independent, 29% Republican and 37% Democrat at the same time last year. Clearly, both parties have lost affiliates, though the Democrats appear to have lost more than the Republicans.

Duffy says the ranks of Independent voters are increasing because of the frustration that Americans feel with both parties. On one side, the Democrats' tin ear to their worries rankles Independents, and the Dems' inability to clean up the economic situation puts them in a vulnerable situation. A recent Gallup poll shows that Independents favor the GOP in House races by 12%.

The Jobless Effect: Unemployment Is Fueling Independent Voters' Anger
By PALLAVI GOGOI Posted 7:05 AM 07/20/10

[earthside]

8. Did Obama just cost the House, Senate?

If I were the Repuglicans, I'd start running a national television ad using Pres. Obama's words today, superimposed over the headlines of today's increase in unemployment.

"We're moving in the right direction."
President Obama Reacts to August Jobs Numbers, Doesn't Mention Net Job Loss of 54K-ABC News

This pollyannish spinning by the administration maybe understandable, but it politically insane.

Don't you just want to scream: Is there anyone out there that can tell Pres. Obama and Emanuel and Axelrod to get real and propose some bold, honest-to-god progressive, populist economic reforms? Won't someone tell him that it is going to take firing Geithner and Summers to show he is serious about Main Street?

I just despair.

[Iowa]

12. Obama has been costing the House & Senate for going on two years now...

This is just one of many blunders.

[jpak]

13. When Obama took office (J09) we were losing 750,000 jobs a month - thanks to Bush & the GOP

but I guess we have short memories

[ipaint]

14. When will that graph get updated?

Also we need 150,000 jobs per month to accommodate people new to the job market.

The green shoots that everyone was yelling hallelujah over at the beginning of the year have yet to make any difference. And they won't unless the graft and corruption at the center of the too big to fails is investigated, prosecuted and the institutions broken up. They are insolvent to the tune of a trillion dollars in bad loans and none of them should exist in their current state never mind rake in hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars while handing themselves obscene bonuses.
I've never seen anything so out of control and lawless.

If this continues, and there is no reason not to think it will since Obama hired two of the key criminals to work in his administration, high unemployment will be permanent and the suffering coming down the road catastrophic.

[jpak]

15. Yeah - the criminal Obamafia is getting away scot-free with this

and doom is cool