August is a pretty sluggish month. It's hot, and a great many people tend to take a nice, long, well-deserved vacation. At least, the would if they could afford it. But many can't, because they don't have a job. 14 million people, to be more precise. Which is why the President's chic vacation to the Vineyard sent such an infuriating message: 'The plight of the unemployed? 26 of the past 28 months with unemployment at or above 9%? Gasping economy? It can wait.' And wait we did.
Employment in the U.S. unexpectedly stagnated in August and the jobless rate held at 9.1 percent as American employers became less confident in the strength of the recovery.
Payrolls were unchanged last month, the weakest reading since September 2010, after an 85,000 gain in July that was less than initially estimated, Labor Department data showed today in Washington. The median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey called for a rise of 65,000.
As our friends at HotAir have pointed out many times - what is the deal with "unexpectedly"? How was this not expected? Who wasn't expecting it? The word is used and abused so often that it's been robbed of all meaning. Kind of like "hope," "change," and "winning the future," right?