3 separate, conflicting Dec. job headlines on Fox, CNN, MSNBC

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

MSNBC: "U.S. payrolls rose modestly in December"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6798230/

"U.S. payrolls rose modestly in December
Job growth in 2004 was highest in five years"

WASHINGTON - U.S. employers added 157,000 workers overall to their payrolls in December, bringing the year-end total of new jobs to 2.2 million, the best showing in five years. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.4 percent.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the 2.2 million new jobs created in 2004 were the most in any year since 1999, when employers added 3.2 million positions, based on a government survey of businesses. In 2003, there was a net 61,000 reduction in payroll jobs.

The figures capped a presidential election year in which job creation was a big concern to many voters, and a potential liability to President Bush. Job growth had been slow since the 2001 recession, puzzling economists and policy-makers expecting the labor market to bounce back more quickly. Democrats seized on the weak performance, claiming the president’s economic policies were not working.

But ultimately, the economy wasn’t enough of a concern to deny Bush a second term.

CNN: "Pace of hiring picks up in December"

http://www.cnn.com/
http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/07/news/economy/jobs_december/index.htm?cnn=yes

Jobs growth picks up: December report shows pace of hiring up but still below forecasts; unemployment rate holds at 5.4%.

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The pace of hiring picked up in December, according to a government report Friday that still came in slightly weaker than Wall Street expectations.

The closely watched Labor Department report showed a seasonally-adjusted 157,000 jobs added to U.S. payrolls in the month, up from the a revised 137,000 added in November, according to the report. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com forecast that there would be 175,000 jobs added in the month. The unemployment rate remained at 5.4 percent, the same as in November and in line with economists' forecasts.

Most employment reports over the last six months of 2004 came in below economists' forecasts and Friday's report raised concerns that employment and economic growth could be sluggish going into 2005. The 157,000 new jobs is roughly what is needed to keep pace with population growth each month.

But the December gain, one of the largest seen in the second half of the year, coupled with the upward revision in the November reading convinced investors that the Federal Reserve is likely to stay the course of interest rate hikes going forward. Bond prices rose, and yields fell, immediately after the report, then returned near their pre-report levels.

Fox: "December Job Growth Falls Short Of Forecasts" (this is the "breaking" headline on the Fox front page...the actual title of the article when you click on it is "Job Growth Misses Estimates in December")

http://www.foxnews.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,143639,00.html

WASHINGTON — A smaller-than-expected 157,000 new jobs were added to U.S. payrolls in December as retailers surprisingly shed employees during the holiday shopping season, the Labor Department (search) reported on Friday.

In 2004 as a whole, job creation was relatively strong in marked contrast to 2003 when jobs were lost.

Despite the fact that December came in below Wall Street economists' forecasts for 175,000 new jobs, it followed upwardly revised totals of 137,000 jobs in November and 312,000 in October. Previously, the government said 112,000 jobs were created in November and 303,000 in October.

The unemployment rate in December was unchanged at 5.4 percent.

[mhr]

1. George's Missing 10.2 Million Jobs

Employment Picture Still Dreary
Comstock Funds
January 06, 2005

Whatever the December payroll employment report shows tomorrow, it can’t come close to making a dent in the serious jobs shortfall of the current economic expansion. Here’s why. The NBER officially designated November 2001 as the bottom of the last recession, meaning that the November report marked the third anniversary of the upturn. During this 36-month period total non-farm payroll employment increased only 0.9%, a number that pales in comparison to past cycles. Over the last seven economic expansions the average rise for a comparable period was 8.7%. If that were the case on the current cycle there would have been 10.2 million more jobs than the total number reported for November, and the average monthly increase for the 36-month period would have been 316,000 per month. Instead the average monthly rise was a paltry 33,000, and even over the past 12 months when employment picked up somewhat, the average monthly increase came to only 171,000, a far cry from the typical cyclical increase. In fact only three months of the 36 showed increases of more than 300,000 jobs.

Snip ......

http://www.comstockfunds.com/screenprint.cfm?newsletterid=1155