Jobless Rate Drops; 112,000 Jobs Added

[FloydGondolli]

Jobless Rate Drops; 112,000 Jobs Added

Feb 6, 12:17 PM (ET)

By LEIGH STROPE

WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent in January to the lowest level in more than two years as companies added just 112,000 new jobs - fewer than expected but enough to keep alive hope for a turnaround in the struggling job market.

The jobless rate fell 0.1 percentage point last month to the lowest level since October 2001, when it was 5.4 percent, the Labor Department said Friday. January's rate matched the 5.6 percent posted in January 2002.

Employers added new jobs last month at a pace not seen in three years. The last time payrolls expanded more than 112,000 was in December 2000, when companies added 124,000 positions.

 

[PatPatriot]

Let me just add the unemployment rate of 5.6% is lower than the average unemployment rate of Klinton which was 5.9%.
Keep in mind that this is REAL growth not the phoney baloney growth of the .com boom.
This is after the over unforseen trillion dollar hit to the economy caused by 9/11 who many say that the economy could have been much worse without the Bush taxcuts.
..so, the economy being bad is just another,gloom and doom,sky is falling, lies from the liberal left....considering all the negitives from the left and the psychological effect it has on the economy..the country is in great shape which is good news for the rest of the world.

 

[codeworks]

The Associated Press-Ipsos poll on the economy and President Bush (news - web sites) is based on telephone interviews with 1,000 randomly selected adults from all states except Alaska and Hawaii. The interviews were conducted Feb. 2-4 by Ipsos-Public Affairs. The sample includes 743 registered voters.



The results were weighted to represent the population by demographic factors such as age, sex, region and education.


No more than one time in 20 should chance variations in the sample cause the results to vary by more than 3 percentage points from the answers that would be obtained if all Americans were polled.


This margin of sampling error is larger for responses of subgroups, such as income categories. There are other sources of potential error in polls, including the wording and order of questions. Numbers below are percentages. January results are in parentheses.


1. Generally speaking, would you say things in this country are heading in the right direction or are they off on the wrong track?


_Right direction, 44 (49)


_Wrong track, 52 (46)


_Don't know-refused to answer, 4 (5)


2. Overall, do you approve, disapprove or have mixed feelings about the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? (asked of registered voters)


_Approve, 47 (56)


_Disapprove, 50 (42)


_Don't know-refused, 3 (4)


3. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy? (asked of registered voters)


_Approve, 44 (53)


_Disapprove, 53 (44)


_Don't know-refused, 3 (3)


4. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling domestic issues like health care, education and the economy? (asked of registered voters)





_Approve, 42 (49)

_Disapprove, 55 (49)

_Don't know-refused, 3 (2)

5. Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling foreign policy issues and the war on terrorism? (asked of registered voters)

_Approve, 53 (60)

_Disapprove, 45 (38)

_Don't know-refused, 3 (2)

6. If the election were held today, would you ... (asked of registered voters)

_Definitely vote to re-elect Bush as president, 37 (41)

_Consider voting for someone else, 18 (24)

_Definitely vote for someone else, 43 (33)

_Don't know-refused, 2 (2)

7. Looking ahead six months from now, do you expect the economy in your local area to be stronger, about the same or weaker than it is now? (economy questions asked of all adults)

_Stronger, 34 (39)

_About the same, 54 (52)

_Weaker, 11 (8)

_Don't know-refused, 1 (1)

8. Looking ahead six months from now, do you expect your personal financial situation to be stronger, about the same or weaker than it is now?

_Stronger, 38 (38)

_About the same, 53 (54)

_Weaker, 8 (7)

_Don't know-refused, 1 (1)

9. Compared to six months ago, are you now more or less comfortable making a major purchase like a home or a car?

_More comfortable, 36 (38)

_Less comfortable, 44 (40)

_No change, 19 (20)

_Don't know-refused, 2

10. Compared to six months ago, are you now more or less comfortable making other household purchases?

_More comfortable, 43 (45)

_Less comfortable, 39 (35)

_No change, 18 (19)

_Don't know-refused, 1 (1)

11. Compared to six months ago, are you now more or less confident about job security for yourself, your family and other people you know personally?

_More confident, 43 (47)

_Less confident, 42 (38)

_No change, 13 (13)

_Don't know-refused, 2 (2)

12. Compared to six months ago, are you now more or less confident of your ability to invest in the future, including your ability to save money for your retirement or your children's education?

_More confident, 46 (48)

_Less confident, 40 (34)

_No change, 12 (15)

_Don't know-refused, 2 (2)

 

[Degenerate]

I have always been a bit wary of these kind of figures. Sure 112,000 jobs were added but where is the information of WHAT kind of jobs. Are they full time type work or part time. What is the median average salary? $25,000? $35,000? $50,000? Specifics please.

 

[FloydGondolli]

Degenerate - did you ask those same qustions when all of the temporary tech jobs were added in the late 1990's when Clinton was President? Did you ask if those were real, long-term jobs or just short-lived positions that had no chance of being long-term due to the fleeting nature of the tech industry in the 90's?

I bet I know the answer.

 

[Degenerate]

No I didn't because I wasn't paying attention then. I don't trust either side so can we answer the question instead of acting like a bitch like both sides of the political persuasion do here.

 

[KMAN]

Patriot - If those employment rates are correct, that is huge. It's another argument that the left can't make anymore.

KMAN

 

[Massmilwaukee]

Manufacturing jobs are being exported...
Engineering jobs are being exported...
R&D jobs are being exported...


You are truly out of touch.

 

[wilheim]

By Warren Vieth and Edwin Chen, LA Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said today.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the health of the U.S. economy.







"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," said Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."

The report, which predicts that the nation will reverse a three-year employment slide by creating 2.6 million jobs in 2004, is part of a weeklong effort by the administration to highlight signs that the recovery is picking up speed. Bush's economic stewardship has become a central issue in the presidential campaign, and the White House is eager to demonstrate that his policies are producing positive results.

In his message to Congress, Bush said the economy "was strong and getting stronger," thanks in part to the administration's tax cuts and other economic policies. He said the nation had survived a stock market meltdown, terrorist attacks, corporate scandals and a global economic slump, and was finally beginning to enjoy "a mounting prosperity that will reach every corner of America."

The president repeated that message during a "conversation" on the economy with workers at SRC Automotive in Springfield, Mo., an employee-owned firm that rebuilds car engines. In one of his most fervent appeals yet to make his tax cuts permanent, he said congressional opponents are seeking to impose a broad new tax hike. "Make no mistake about it," he said.

The president's 411-page report contains a detailed diagnosis of the forces contributing to the economic slowdown that began about the time Bush occupied the White House, and a wide-ranging defense of the policies he has pursued to combat it.

It asserts that the last recession actually began in late 2000, before Bush took office, instead of in March, 2001, as certified by the official recession dating panel of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Much of the report repeats the administration's previous economic prescriptions. The Bush tax cuts must be made permanent, it says, to have their full beneficial effect on the economy. Social Security must be restructured to let workers put part of their retirement funds in private accounts, it argues, to address a long-term funding shortfall.

But the report devotes considerable attention to an issue that has become increasingly troublesome for the administration: the loss of 2.8 million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office, and critics' claims that the administration's trade policies are partly to blame.

The report acknowledges that international trade and foreign outsourcing have contributed to the job slump. But it argues that technological progress and rising productivity — the ability to produce more goods with fewer workers — have played a bigger role than trade.

Although trade expansion inevitably hurts some workers, it says, the benefits will eventually outweigh the costs as Americans are able to buy goods and services at lower costs and as jobs are created in growing sectors of the economy.

The report endorses the relatively new phenomenon of outsourcing high-end white-collar work to India and other countries, a trend that has created concern within affected professions such as computer programming and medical diagnostics.

"The gains from trade that take place over the Internet or telephone lines are no different then the gains from trade in physical goods transported by ship or plane," it says. "When a good or service is produced at lower cost in another country, it makes sense to import it rather than to produce it domestically."

Bush's quick visit to Missouri — his 15th to what is considered a critical election battleground — was the first of several events intended to underscore recent economic improvements. Although job creation remains relatively sluggish, the nation's unemployment rate has fallen from 6.3% in June to 5.6% in January, and the economy grew at the fastest pace in 20 years during the last half of 2003.

The format, a Bush favorite, involved five SRC Automotive employees sharing a stage with the president to discuss their personal perspectives on the economy, with Bush often elaborating on their stories to tout various aspects of his economic agenda.

On Tuesday, Bush is scheduled to meet with economic leaders at the White House. On Thursday, he goes to Harrisburg, Pa., another key swing state that he has visited more than two dozen times.

 

[WildBill]

These arguments are all stupid in my mind. Both sides, for political reasons, want you to think the economy is about to make a huge rebound or conversely, it sucks. Why won't anyone just say it like it is. The economy is middling. Jobless rate is above the "natural rate" of unemployment which right now is probably something in the 4.5-4.8% range, but the real wage growth and profits of corporations are quite strong. If you have a job, you are probably doing quite well as inflation is almost non-existant. If you don't have a job its not good because hiring isn't exactly firing up yet. It is plainly a mixed bag. No one should be taking credit, nor blame, for where we are right now.