UPDATE: Austan Goolsbee, Obama's former top economic advisor who resigned a month ago, says we shouldn't focus on one monthly jobs report because unemployment numbers are "volative," the problem is, the unemployment rate has been between 8 and 10 percent since Obama took office and after trillions in spending and failed policies, unemployment sits at 9.2 percent today.
The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.
Americans aren't "reading too much into any one monthly report," they're looking at the big picture and it is grim.
The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and employment estimates are subject to substantial revision. Therefore, as the Administration always stresses, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report.
Adding to Kevin's earlier post, more Americans are without a job as the President suggests we raise taxes on the job creators as a solution to the debt crisis. This is the weakest month for job growth since September.
The unemployment rate has jumped to 9.2 percent as only 18,000 jobs were added in June, leaving 14.1 million Americans unemployed and 8.6 million Americans underemployed.
Hiring slowed to a near-standstill last month. Employers added the fewest jobs in nine months and the unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent.
The Labor Department said Friday that the economy generated only 18,000 net jobs in June. And the number of jobs added in May was revised down to 25,000.
Businesses added the fewest jobs in more than a year. Governments cut 39,000 jobs. Over the past eight months, federal, state and local governments have cut a combined 238,000 positions.
The latest report offered evidence that that the recovery will be painfully slow. Two years after the recession officially ended, companies are adding fewer workers despite record cash stockpiles and healthy profit margins.
Hiring has slowed sharply in the past two months, after the economy added an average of 215,000 jobs per month in the previous three months.
Just to keep up with population growth, 125,000 jobs must be added each month and that number must double in order to start bringing down the unemployment rate.
Unemployment has never been so high so long after a recession ended. At the same point after the previous three recessions, unemployment averaged just 6.8 percent.
Unemployment among major worker groups:
The unemployment rates for adult men (9.1 percent),
adult women (8.0 percent), teenagers (24.5 percent), whites (8.1 percent), blacks
(16.2 percent), Asians was 6.8 percent and Hispanics (11.6 percent)
A silver lining: government employment went down slightly last month.
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