Jobs numbers: Does anyone really believe this crap??

[acmavm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/business/11econ.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin


By EDUARDO PORTER and VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: March 11, 2006

<snip>

American employers added 243,000 jobs in February and workers posted their highest salary gains in more than four years, the government reported yesterday, igniting concerns among many Wall Street economists that higher wages could fuel inflation and increase expectations that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates further.

But some economists cautioned that employment is benefiting from the exceptionally mild weather in January and the beginning of February, and that employers' demand for workers is unlikely to remain as strong in the coming months.

"This report is good, but it does not say the economy is booming," said David Kelly, senior economic adviser at Putnam Investments, the mutual fund concern in Boston.

Others pointed out that workers' wages are barely keeping up with the rate of inflation, recent gains notwithstanding — and there is little proof that they are pushing prices up across the economy.

"This is what a healthy job market looks like — we just haven't seen it for a long while, so it makes inflation hawks nervous," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

-More-
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Does this make sense. Didn't I see where there were 323,000 plus new unemployment claims last month? Am I crazy? Doesn't that still put us in the negative numbers? Is there something about this that I'm really missing. If more people are out of work than there are new jobs, are you still not in the shitter?

[bluestateguy]

1. Possibly

Maybe the jobs are coming back--in retail and customer service, food service, etc. The vast majority of these jobs are insecure, without benefits, non-union and with bad pay. If this is the case then we should not celebrate.

[calmblueocean]

4. Exactly.

Whenever I hear the raw job numbers, I wish they'd include the average salary of the jobs created. How can anyone talk meaningfully about the economy without knowing whether we're creating lots of minimum wage employment or decent jobs that can support a family?

[acmejack]

8. They aren't subtracting jobs they need to create for population growth!

Which would be a sizable portion of that figure, if I am not mistaken. Their unemployment figures are total crap. If you take all the people not collecting unemployment, the invisible people, the underground economy, and add them to the folks the Government considers to be officially "unemployed", I suggest the true figure is between 15 and 20%. I am counting everyone who could work but doesn't in that figure.

[quaoar]

19. To account for population growth

the economy needs to average about 150,000 new jobs a month.

It should be noted that while 250,000 new jobs is a good raw figure, that many new jobs were averaged month after month after month during the Clinton Administration.

[sam sarrha]

13. places like Swift Trucking with 22,000 drivers have 110% annual turnover

the pay is so bad, the trucks so bad and the pressure to break the log book law on your dime.. not worth it.. make more money at McDonald's, and they have a worse turnover..

last place i worked lost people every couple of days, i should have gone with them long before i did.

you are only counted ONCE in your life time as an unemployed person, the statistic is First Time Unemployed... !!!!!!!!

[serryjw]

15. OMG I never heard that

May I have a link to that juicy piece of info!

[sam sarrha]

21. I worked for them for a while, my trainer was so inexperienced he almost

killed me the first day out driving down out of DENVER down hill in the wrong gear.. he hadn't bathed in a month, he gangrene on his feet so bad from fungus from truck stop showers, he smelled like road kill, it made me dry heave, i got in the truck and didn't really get out of it for 3 weeks.. and i didnt get back in.

a couple of years before that C........ trucking company where i applied to found out had had 164 rear ender accidents, 35 rollovers and 8 dead in 6 months. which is why they went to the 14 hour on/10 off law, before it was 2 drivers, 1 driving 4 hours on and sleeping 4 hours while the other drove and then 4 on 4 off 4 on 4 off 4 on 4 off.. 24/7 for 2 weeks to a month and them 1 day of for each week on the road, but they schedule you so that you are across the country and cant get home sometimes for 2 months.... they dont want the truck stopped, so they let you off and then you just get the next driver that need a driver nearest to you.. so if you get a good partner you dont lose him.. you just stay in the truck for months and visit home if you happen to drive by near. you can git some real bat shit crazy partners, i had a guy go into amphetamine psychosis on me outside of Houston.. they schedual you so tight you dont ever use you flex time, or if it looks like you will get there 4 hours early, you dont dare stop and take a shower because if there is a slowdown and you are late there will be hell to pay:banghead:

[sam sarrha]

28. that is what they told me in Orientation... google it

[acmejack]

20. That is a news flash!

That has to really skew the figure in this day and age! Those sneaky so & sos.

[Southsideirish]

25. Just crappy Mcjobs - I don't consider something a "real" job unless it has

benefits, leave, etc.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Those jobs must be in India.

They've lied to us about everything else, why not this too?

[unblock]

3. job creation and unemployment are not direct offsets

because the number of people who WANT to be working can go up or down. partly this can be due to population growth, partly this can be due to more or less people dropping out of the labor pool to become students or stay-at-home parents, etc.

new unemployment claims is also not the complete picture, because ideally you look at the length of time people are unemployed as well.

but yes, generally speaking, you do want to see new unemployment claims down and job creation up.

[liberal N proud]

5. What they are telling is the number of new jobs created in a given period

The key is new jobs. It mentions nothing about how many jobs were lost.

While they were claiming new jobs the unemployment rate that they report is up at 4.8%
I still believe that this rate is low because of how they report it as well.

They are all numbers created to try make the people and investors think the economy is growing again.

[rucky]

6. maybe they included the Mariana sweatshops?

:shrug:

[hollowdweller]

7. There's plenty jobs. Most folks have to have at least two anymore

Just to make ends meet.

[RC]

9. America would have more jobs if they had not

outsourced the broom factories. :sarcasm:

[0007]

10. No it doesn't make sense and someone ought to call them

on it!!

[madrchsod]

11. in my little corner of northern illinois

we cannot find workers to fill 220 jobs..the new walmart distribution center is still 200 workers short and that is not what they will be short once people start realizing just how bad the job is. walmart distribution centers are really bad places to work..you get paid very well and benefits are good but you earn every dam cent of it. working in a cold storage center is worse than brutal- it`s inhuman--the pay is very good-starting at around 11.50 and a final wage scale around 19.00...but you earn it and don`t expect to make it a career. another business that pays very well still hasn`t found 20 some people to do small part assembly work..they have been trying to find workers for the last three months so the company can go to a 4 day-40 hour schedule.
there are some jobs out there but most are replacing workers who have retired or quit. there is no real new job growth that would turn the economy.

a side note-i work in the printing industry and ad revenue is falling and what we print has fewer pages. another large printing company near here is not hiring for spring printing for fall publications for the first time since the last "recession"

[OneTwentyoNine]

12. Loose your unemployment **POOF** you just got a job....

Thats the fantasy land that those numbers represent. They have no freakin idea how many actually found a job. They just know as people fall off the unemployment payroll then that equals a job.

How about a statistic showing those who lost jobs getting a new one at a compareable rate to their old one? Thats the statistic I hear over and over. People who used to have a $15-20 hour job are now working for $8.00 or LESS. But hey...they show up on Bushs list as jobs being created.

[sam sarrha]

14. those figures are "First Time " unemployed, you are only counted once.!

[serryjw]

18. please give me a link to that

I love it!

Everyday we hear fortune 500 companies are downsizing 10's of thousands.Has any one heard of ANY major company HIRING 10's of thousands? January & February are worst months for retail especially this year with auto and home energy prices skyrocketing. WHERE are these jobs coming from. Go to Craig's List under sales. The only jobs are real estate sales & mortgage brokers. BOTH are straight commission.

[area51]

16. "Jobs numbers: Does anyone really believe this crap??"

I'm unemployed & I certainly don't believe them. It's extremely hard to get a job.

[acmavm]

22. See?? You are (for which I must say I'm very sorry) exactly the type of

example that makes a lie out of bullshit articles like this.

Hope you find something soon.

[Auntie Bush]

17. I wonder if those who join the military are considered new jobs? nt

[acmejack]

23. I'm sure they are.

They advertise in the Classified ads in Monster and such

[Southsideirish]

26. Reagan was the first one to throw the military into the ranks of

the "employed."

[Harald Ragnarsson]

24. Two booming industries are skewing the numbers

The oil industry is booming down south right now, because of the high prices or we're about to run out or both.

I think re-construction in the Gulf Coast area after Katrina is helping to paint a false picture as well. I know of several people around here that moved down to New Orleans to get construction jobs.

[gizmo1979]

27. I don't believe any

government report anymore.I can only use my personal experience as a guide.They said construction jobs were added at an all time high.I know that's a lie because I work in a construction reliant business and we are the slowest we've been in 3 years.I don't know what they are constructing,maybe bird houses.