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Human Events
Job market
craters in August
By: John Hayward
9/5/2014
It seems like only yesterday that Barack Obama was telling his
$35,000-a-plate cronies that the economy was much stronger than
everyone thought it was, and he really ought to be taking a victory lap
for his “achievements.” When that “achievement” is six years of
grinding high-unemployment, low-growth malaise and the biggest
food-stamp program the world has ever seen, purchased at the cost of
very nearly doubling the national debt in a single Presidency, there’s
nothing to celebrate. And the pretense that a “recovery” is under
way ended with today’s release of the August unemployment report, as
reported by the Associated Press:
U.S. employers added just 142,000 jobs in August, snapping a six-month
streak of hiring above 200,000 and posting the smallest gain in eight
months.
The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent, the Labor
Department said Friday. But the rate dropped because more people
without jobs stopped looking for one and were no longer counted as
unemployed.
Employers also added 28,000 fewer jobs in June and July than the
government had previously estimated.
The weaker-than-expected figures make it unlikely that the Federal
Reserve will speed up its timetable for raising interest rates. Most
analysts expect the first rate hike around mid-2015.
August’s job gains were far below the average monthly increase of
212,000 in the past 12 months. The slowdown was unexpected after most
recent economic data had suggested that the economy was growing at a
healthy pace.
Ah, the return of “unexpected” economic news! It’s been, what,
three months since the media greeted each new piece of disappointing
news with a ritual cry of “UNEXPECTEDLY!” Hope you enjoyed
Recovery Summer V, everyone!
On the bright side, much of the highly-touted “gains” of the latest
Recovery Summer were in low-paying, part-time, and temporary work, and
those areas also make up for a good deal of the lost ground in August,
so that’s kind of a wash. It’s not so much that August was
uniquely horrible, as that the past three months weren’t nearly as good
as advertised. Let’s raise the minimum wage and blow that weak
entry-level market to smithereens! Then we can have a food stamp
program for the ages...
Read the rest of the article at Human Events
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