Great Jobs Report: Unemployment Rate Falls To 7.5%

Well, this thread has really taken a sharp turn from where it began, but I, personally, have learned a lot from it. I had no idea that things like average weekly hours numbers were available...it IS very interesting, as a few posters have said earlier. The only sector that seems to not have gone down in hours/overtime is education and health.

I wonder if taking care of our aging population and teaching English to Asian nations is the US' new major industry?

(For any others that are as novice in these things as I, I found the hours worked data here

reply to post by Surfrat


There are anecdotal reports like this one from the Los Angeles Times: "Consider the city of Long Beach. It is limiting most of its 1,600 part-time employees to fewer than 27 hours a week, on average. City officials say that without cutting payroll hours, new health benefits would cost up to $2 million more next year..." So the City of Long Beach, in order to save $2 million that it does not have, has reduced the workweek for 1600 people that work for the city down to 27 hours.

Those people, by the way, are included in the "positive" unemployment numbers today. Those 293,000 jobs created and everybody is going, "Yay! Right on, dude!" are made up largely of people like that. Let's see. Even with the unemployment rate at 7.5%, it is way above where the Obama White House predicted it would be if Congress passed the stimulus in 2009. This is important to remember. We passed the Porkulus bill, which is one of the first things Obama did in 2009.

Remember, the knock-off vice president was running around predicting 600,000 and 800,000 new jobs a month? The Obama team said that the unemployment rate would be something like 5% by now if we passed the stimulus. It's at 7.5%. But that's a misleading number, too. I'm not trying to throw cold water on anything. I mean, a lot of people want to look at this and feel good about it, and if you do, fine. I'm just pointing out here that the majority of people that make up this great job report are part-time employees, people that are working under 30 hours a week.

anything good for the economy, while Obama is still president is .......wrong, false flag, illuminati, lies, socialist, communist.......we have too many good, hard-working, intelligent, republican researchers on ATS, that would possibly suggest anything else....

I agree with you OP

My company has been hiring like crazy these past few months, and we're putting in around 25 hours of overtime each week.

Things are definitely turning around.

Originally posted by jimmyx
anything good for the economy, while Obama is still president is .......wrong, false flag, illuminati, lies, socialist, communist.......we have too many good, hard-working, intelligent, republican researchers on ATS, that would possibly suggest anything else....

Exactly.

You almost get the feeling that a lot of people here want the U.S. economy to crash and burn just so they can play their partisan games, and come on here and tell the world "I told you so!"

reply to post by muse7


Not for me. I don't care who is sitting in the chair if things are going good. However, a lot of these jobs posted are low paying temp jobs. I want prosperity with folks working 40 hours and having benefits.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000



Illinois is not just bad, it's sinking like a rock. I live in one of the worst counties [ unemployment at 11.2 ] but the rest of the state is not much better. I think if they calculated the real rate, people would be stunned. And really pissed. What part of "Broke" don't these clowns get?
Just to throw in a chart - www.ides.illinois.gov...

More people have been added to welfare than jobs created in the last 5 years

Come on people don't you smell the BS being shoveled?

Meanwhile...

money.msn.com...

Enrollment in SNAP has surged 70% since 2008, reaching a record 47.8 million Americans in December. Even more shocking, that means 15% of the country receives the benefits, nearly double the rate as in 1975, when the U.S. suffered from soaring inflation, a recession and an oil crisis.

Up 70% since 2008.

Nearly 50 million Americans.

There is news even better/worse than this, in several categories and all are REAL commentary on the state of the nation, not the fantasy the administration is attempting to portray in their jobs reports.

But hey it's Friday... Let everyone dream of the better tomorrow and be filled with hope again.

Cheers.

Originally posted by Afterthought
reply to post by BobM88

 

I appreciate your positive attitude, but I believe the number of unemployed has dropped only because people have fallen out of the system and aren't collecting unemployment benefits anymore.
According to this, it's 13.9%
portalseven.com...

Uh... According to your post even the U6 has been going down.

Originally posted by BobM88

The April number is out and it's good all around! This is a major relief for the economy, as people have been worried about slowing data. The 165,000 new jobs was above the 140,000 that was expected. The unemployment rate fell to 7.5%. It was expected to stay flat at 7.6%. And there were big upward revisions to last month, which was originally really weak.

The April Jobs Report

I'll admit I've had my doubts about Obama, but this is good news. Perhaps I've been wrong about his policies? Or is this due to the sequester? As everyone tended to blame Bush for the economy during his tenure, (and even long after), and people have been blaming Obama for the economy when its been bad during his first term I guess he deserves credit when things are getting better too?

Thoughts anyone?

edit on 3-5-2013 by BobM88 because: (no reason given)

edit on 3-5-2013 by Gazrok because: removed all caps from titles.

50million on food stamps and probably about 14% that are either unemployed or under employed and you think he's doing a bang-up job? Yeah he deserves all the credit for those numbers.

Originally posted by BobM88

The April number is out and it's good all around! This is a major relief for the economy, as people have been worried about slowing data. The 165,000 new jobs was above the 140,000 that was expected. The unemployment rate fell to 7.5%. It was expected to stay flat at 7.6%. And there were big upward revisions to last month, which was originally really weak.

The April Jobs Report

I'll admit I've had my doubts about Obama, but this is good news. Perhaps I've been wrong about his policies? Or is this due to the sequester? As everyone tended to blame Bush for the economy during his tenure, (and even long after), and people have been blaming Obama for the economy when its been bad during his first term I guess he deserves credit when things are getting better too?

Thoughts anyone?

edit on 3-5-2013 by BobM88 because: (no reason given)

edit on 3-5-2013 by Gazrok because: removed all caps from titles.

reply to post by Bilk22


Satan is the great deceiver, under his direction lies can be told to the masses, and multitudes will believe.

Destroy the economy, a weakened people will lose faith, and become dependent on a system that seeks only to enslave them... And then you die and learn the truth... A horrible truth.

Originally posted by Bilk22

Originally posted by BobM88

The April number is out and it's good all around! This is a major relief for the economy, as people have been worried about slowing data. The 165,000 new jobs was above the 140,000 that was expected. The unemployment rate fell to 7.5%. It was expected to stay flat at 7.6%. And there were big upward revisions to last month, which was originally really weak.

The April Jobs Report

I'll admit I've had my doubts about Obama, but this is good news. Perhaps I've been wrong about his policies? Or is this due to the sequester? As everyone tended to blame Bush for the economy during his tenure, (and even long after), and people have been blaming Obama for the economy when its been bad during his first term I guess he deserves credit when things are getting better too?


Thoughts anyone?

edit on 3-5-2013 by BobM88 because: (no reason given)

edit on 3-5-2013 by Gazrok because: removed all caps from titles.

50million on food stamps and probably about 14% that are either unemployed or under employed and you think he's doing a bang-up job? Yeah he deserves all the credit for those numbers.

Wait just a dram minute once again his shills at the BLS have covered his ass and manipulated the numbers. We actually saw a reduction in hours worked and average salary of US workers. Gullible people like you buy the govt line and see a rainbow where there is a world of Doo Doo. Check out the real stats and see how you, like the market have been manipulated. Dig deeper and open your eye you are being lied to. In terms of workred hours and salary we actually lost over the equivalent of 600,000 jobs. See this article: www.zerohedge.com...

Originally posted by jimmyx
anything good for the economy, while Obama is still president is .......wrong, false flag, illuminati, lies, socialist, communist.......we have too many good, hard-working, intelligent, republican researchers on ATS, that would possibly suggest anything else....

It makes me sick to my stomach, literally, to see so many supposed patriots, actually rooting for failure of the economy.

You can see it in every single post. It's one thing to take the jobs report with a grain of salt, but to scrutinize 10 different graphs and charts and search for anything bad or questionable, in an attempt to slander the ACA or the president is exactly what's wrong with this country, and more specifically in congress. So many supposed Americans working against the current administration so hard, setting record numbers of fillibusters with no end in sight, and just complaining.

Here's the simple fact.
in late 07 this country was losing 750k jobs a month.
The market has shot up remarkably and unemployment has in fact gone down.
Is it where we all want it to be? No it isn't, but it is in fact better. The huge mess we were in cannot be radically altered as quickly as the brilliant ATS economists seem to think so.

First off they kept saying how the U.S. economy will get worse if Europe economy got worse.Well the Europe economy has gotten way worse and somehow they say the U.S. economy is getting better.

I don't understand any of this stuff.Seems like they say anything.

I really wish they would change the "unemployment rate" numbers to something that tells the true story. And I'm sure they have these numbers but simply don't use them. Take the total amount of gross income everyone made for a given year and divide it by the total number of people making that gross income plus the total number of people that "should" be working. Yes..."should" includes those on well-fare, unemployment, disability, etc. Rate that back to the value of the dollar on a set year (eg. to adjust for inflation, etc.) and then we have a number that means something. It shows a value (lets say $40,000 per person) and if that drops to $30,000 next year...we aren't doing well. My reasoning for the "should" is that if someone who could be working isn't, those who are pay for them not working. Even if it isn't their fault.

But then again...I believe we should have a flat tax. Yeah...complete nut here

reply to post by BobM88


more smoke and mirrors
how can you possibly have lower "unemployment" at the same time the lowest labor participation rate in decades?
first and foremost. become aware of the BLS "seasonal" adjustments. they just make up numbers to add to the employed roles. nearly every jobs report for the past four years required after the fact revisions.
second, learn the meaning of "U6"- closer to the real unemployment rate.
third, being stuck working 24hrs/wk at the quicky mart after being laid off as a muckedy muck 90K/yr supervisor because that's all that's hiring might count as employed, but is not exactly employed at potential, or required income to pay the bills.
Last, ask how can 9 million people just "disappear".

Ah, the false economic recovery report. Unbelievable that anyone would fall for it.

The stats are terribly skewed.

I recall prior to the end of Bush, beginning of Obama economic crash, there were numerous housing developments on tap for our local area, 50 homes here, 400 homes there, 250 over yonder, you get the picture.

Absolutely none of those developments came to fruition, and none are on the table at the present time.....NONE!

When I see residential housing development plans come across the table at the local municipal meetings I'll begin to believe there is a true recovery in the making, but it has not happened yet.

Millions have fallen out of the work force and simply are not counted in the "official" report.....this drastically skews that statistic.

Secondly, the grand health insurance plan is just beginning to take it's toll, and private industry has moved to provide part time positions as this practice will save literally millions, if not billions, in health care costs....at the same time forcing the labor force into the government health exchange.

What this does is provide 'we the people' with substandard, low wage, part time, no benefits jobs AND substandard health care. The march to socialism is well under way.

'tis a shame, and all hail and thanks to the ruling class.

reply to post by BobM88

These numbers are totally bogus, a first year stats major could tell you that. They only take in account additions to the market place. What the fail to look into is known as the churn rate. If you churn rate is high, all the gains in the world mean nothing. In fat it is high, nearly 20%. This means we are losing jobs faster than we can replace them. This is not seen in the unemployment figures because they do not account for individuals leaving the job market. We need to see around 275k jobs per month and losing less than 100k jobs per month to get back to a solid economic position.

Just think really quick, what happens to a society where people are constantly changing jobs. I will give you a hint, the longer it goes on the longer the impact becomes in he future.