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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEconomy adds 157k jobs in January, revisions way up
By Steve Benen
Expectations for job creation were pretty close to perfect according to the new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the economy adding 157,000 jobs in January. The big news, however, is in the revisions...The unemployment rate was effectively unchanged at 7.9%, and as is often the case, austerity measures undermined the employment landscape -- while America's private sector added 166,000 jobs in December, the public sector lost 9,000 jobs. Indeed, over the last three months, the nation's private sector added 624,000 jobs, while 24,000 government jobs were lost.
It'd be easy for Washington to improve the latter number and lower the unemployment rate, but congressional Republicans won't allow it.
Regardless, today is the day the BLS publishes its revisions for all of 2012, and that's where we see the genuinely good news. Not only were the job totals for November and December revised up considerably -- 127,000 jobs combined -- but for the entire 2012 calendar year, we learned this morning of an additional 335,000 jobs that had not been previously reported.
That means 2.17 million jobs were created just last year, which is the best annual total since 2005, and tops seven of the eight years Bush/Cheney was in office.
- more -
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/02/01/16806287-economy-adds-157k-jobs-in-january-revisions-way-up
Maybe Republicans will put the good of the country before their partisan agenda. I can dream.
coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)7.9% in January 2013, a fitting end-note for the 2010 "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs" Rape-publi-scum Congress. What a bunch of ignorant demagogues and charlatans.
malaise
(269,146 posts)Imagine the numbers if ReTHUGs weren't sabotaging government jobs.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) released the following statement in response to the January jobs numbers:
This is the wrong time for President Obama to scrap his jobs council and delay his budget. Month after month we see the same thing: high unemployment and even more debt. More than 12 million Americans are still unemployed, and its been that way for far too long. If government spending were what causes economic growth, as the president believes, then the economy today should be booming, and the unemployment rate in America should be plummeting.
Instead of accepting sluggish job growth as the new normal, we need to work together to grow our economy, address our debt crisis, and expand opportunity for all Americans. In the weeks ahead, Republicans will outline another budget that addresses our spending problem and promotes robust job creation. And with our no budget, no pay initiative, weve made sure Senate Democrats will do the same or they wont get a paycheck. Anyone who's paying more at the gas pump and the grocery store under the Obama administration, or who's lost a job or is underemployed, knows the importance of balancing a budget - the Democrats running Washington need to do so as well.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-hits-obama-over-expired-jobs-council
Get this clown a red nose. The report apparently caught him off guard so he ignores it to focus on a useless council, which they've repeatedly attacked, while also ignoring the actual implications of the GDP report.
Krugman: Our Incredible Shrinking Government (and the dip in 4th quarter GDP)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022294128
malaise
(269,146 posts)DallasNE
(7,403 posts)A good deal of their work and they are contracting out less of that work it means that the BLS job numbers for public employees actually understate those job losses because contracted workers are not included in the public sector report.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)libtodeath
(2,888 posts)SunSeeker
(51,646 posts)Thanks, Pro.
Botany
(70,552 posts)God knows where we would be if the republicans hadn't been trying to trash
the economy for political reasons.
bhikkhu
(10,720 posts)you might say.
The best real growth in a very long time.
OKNancy
(41,832 posts)It may not close above 14000, but investors are happy.
uponit7771
(90,348 posts)DallasNE
(7,403 posts)BLS does not break out at what level job are added/lost for government jobs. A recent report showed that Obama has been adding government workers at the slowest pace since Eisenhower. What that means is that more than 100% of these job losses in the public sector are at the State and local level (teachers, first responders, etc.). We are, in other words, still suffering as a nation for the 2010 election. Just look at the States Obama carried in 2012 that have Republican Governors (from memory). Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, New Jersey, Virginia and Florida. (Not sure on Rhode Island). That is roughly half the States that Obama won. That is where the work needs to be done in 2014 (2013 in Virginia).
Zax2me
(2,515 posts)This article and graph omits this huge detail.
Why?
dmallind
(10,437 posts)Do you think those numbers might be relevant?
econoclast
(543 posts)The OTHER employment report, called the Household Survey .... The report the inemployment rate us calculated from .... Shows JOB LOSSES of 115,000. Which is why the unemployment rate went up.