Jobless rate falls to a 5 year low

[Ripsnort]

Nice economic news that shows how well our economy is doing with a Republican in charge.

The unemployment rate fell to a five-year low of 4.4 percent as job growth picked up to 180,000 last month — a show of strength that bolstered hopes that the economy will endure the turmoil in the housing and mortgage markets without major harm.
    The March increase in jobs reported by the Labor Department reflected a revival of hiring among construction companies, department stores and retailers as well as continued robust growth of health care jobs. The construction job gains erased a big loss in February resulting from cold weather and left jobs in the sector roughly unchanged since September with increases in hiring for office and government construction projects offsetting losses in housing construction.
    In another sign of unexpected strength, hiring in January and February was 32,000 more than previously reported. But the overall employment gains in March masked the loss of another 16,000 manufacturing jobs — the ninth straight month of shed factory jobs — as well as a rare cut in business services jobs for accountants and temporary employees.
    "The latest job numbers show an economy that is effectively absorbing the blows from the residential and mortgage sectors," said Bernard Baumohl, managing director of the Economic Outlook Group, an economic advisory firm in Princeton Junction, N.J.
    Job growth averaged a "respectable" 152,000 a month in the first quarter, which is down from last year's 188,500 pace but consistent with the more subdued growth of the economy, he said.
    Wages continued to grow moderately, bringing the yearly gain for average hourly workers to 4 percent. Both the wage gains and the unemployment rate are at levels attained at the end of the last expansion in 2001, signaling that the job market remains fairly tight despite a slackening of economic growth since last spring.
    "The economic outlook is quite bright, and the probability of recession is still negligible" as long as consumers continue to gain jobs and income, Mr. Baumohl said.

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/business/20070406-103239-7292r.htm

[bj229r]

Notice ya had to go to the Washington TIMES to get that, and not the Post or the NY Times? I expect the Today Show to do a story about how a lot of folks just haven't been helped by this economy for some reason....in the 90's, good news wasn't difficult to find about a somewhat LESS vibrant economy. Perhaps if we think REAL hard..we can figure out why:rolleyes:

Ah.. the Post DID bury an article in the business section about the unemployment rate dropping for 2nd month in a row...no wait...it's still bad news:

Despite the good news, economists predict that the economy will slow later this year, as manufacturing continues to weaken and the housing slump takes its toll on jobs. Zandi pointed to a loss of 12,300 jobs in employment services last month, including temporary workers, who tend to be among the first let go when business gets tough.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/06/AR2007040601921.html

[Seagoon]

Hi Rip,

Sadly it really doesn't matter. The jobless rate could fall to 1% and be made up entirely of the congenitally unemployable and it still wouldn't help the administration a bit. No administration, no matter how successful, could survive long in the current climate. In politics, perception, not reality, is everything. As long as you are perceived favorably, you are doing well. The current administration will never be perceived favorably, they have the academy, the intelligentsia, the press, Hollywood, and now most of the government constantly churning out negative information about them on a constant basis. For instance, today NPR greeted the positive employment news with several pieces on unemployment amongst minorities and how the government doesn't care. This was followed by a piece about how the figures themselves can still be interpreted in a way that makes them less cheery.

The fact that if the figures had come out during the tenure of Bill Clinton they would have been greeted with unanimous front page tub-thumping approval is never considered. With Bush, no news is ever or can be good news. And when the news is negative, there is literally no bottom to how bad it can be. We have gotten to the point where the President can be blamed, for instance, not only for the results of a Hurricane, but for the Hurricane itself. At one time a reporter who took that line would have been considered a crazed moonbat political hack, going beyond even the vitriol heaped on American presidents by say, Pravda. Today, that kind of thing is mainstream and thoroughly passe.  

It seems to me that while conservatives may have won the cold-war against the Soviets, they have lost the war against socialism at home and abroad. Conservatism as a western political viewpoint is simply viewed as evil, heartless, and incapable of producing any kind of good in most of the world. Generations now have been raised to think that, and it isn't changing. Given enough time, it will be as unpopular to say "I'm a conservative" as it is to say "I'm a Nazi." I've spent time in places where most people already think they're synonyms.

[Ripsnort]

very good observations written very eloquently, Seagoon.

[rpm]

Hmm, unemployment down. Foreclosures at an all time high. What does this tell you?

[Toad]

That the scam artists in the mortgage industry made a crap load of money loaning money to people that really don't qualify to own a house with a vicious adjustable mortgage?

That utimately the US taxpayer will end up paying for this mistake while the perpetrators of this sub-prime mortgage fiasco sit on their yatchs in the Carribbean sipping Mai-Tais and wondering how the poor folks are doing?

Just a guess.

[rpm]

McJobs

[Toad]

McTheft, much like the savings and loan scandal.

[rpm]

Remind me, who was behind that?

[MiloMorai]

Unemployment rate down dispite all those illegal Mexicans.

[Toad]

Well, if you're talking about the Keating 5, that would be one Republican and four Democrats.

In 1989, the Lincoln Savings and Loan Association of Irvine, Calif., collapsed. Lincoln's chairman, Charles H. Keating Jr., was faulted for the thrift's failure. Keating, however, told the House Banking Committee that the FHLBB and its former chief Edwin J. Gray were pursuing a vendetta against him. Gray testified that several U.S. senators had approached him and requested that he ease off on the Lincoln investigation. It came out that these senators had been beneficiaries of $1.3 million (collective total) in campaign contributions from Keating.

This allegation set off a series of investigations by the California government, the United States Department of Justice, and the Senate Ethics Committee. The ethics committee's investigation focused on five senators: Alan MacG. Cranston (D-Calif.); Dennis W. DeConcini (D-Ariz.); John H. Glenn Jr. (D-Ohio); John S. McCain III (R-Ariz.); and Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich), who became known as the Keating Five.

After months of testimony revealed that all five senators acted improperly to differing degrees, the senators continually said they were following the status quo of campaign funding practices. In August 1991, the committee concluded that Cranston, DeConcini, and Riegle's conduct constituted substantial interference with the FHLBB's enforcement efforts and that they had done so at the behest of Charles Keating. The committee recommended censure for Cranston and criticized the other four for "questionable conduct."

If you're trying to sling poo RPM, it has a funny way of sticking to both sides of our corrupt political process.

[rpm]

The answer I was looking for is "conservatives". This was during the heyday of the "Born Again" religious right movement. Keating was a prime example of their hypocrisy.

[Toad]

Funny then that 4 of the Keating 5 were... Democrats.

Look, crooks are crooks, on both sides of the political spectrum. Or are you going to type with a straight face that this sub-prime loan thing is a vast right wing conspiracy?

It's a conspiracy to make money by making loans that had no hope in hell of being paid off. Think any liberals made money on these deals? Or is it all just the bad ole conservatives?

[blkmgc]

In other news (anywhere) the local plant is closing and putting thousands of workers out of work in favor of a "global economy" and the desire by big business to exploit foriegn labor for pennies on the dollar while enjoying little to no environmental regulations.

film at 11

[pipz]

When they figure out Unemployment do they just tally up jobs.What Im getting at is unempoyment down because Rite-Aid opened a bunch of new stores paying people at min wage.I bought my house around 7 years ago at 69k.In just the last few years its value has gone up too 150k.Im in manufacturing.I have an "ok" payin job.I feel bad for the young guys.They want to buy houses but theres no way they will be able to afford it.I hit tight spots payin my mortgage.

Pipz