Job Growth Anemic in February
The U.S. economy added a paltry 21,000 jobs last month, according to a surprisingly weak government report on Friday that turned up the heat on President Bush as he seeks re-election.
The February jobs report from the Labor Department was the latest in a string that had fallen far short of expectations, dashing hopes employment would soon turn decisively higher.
"The job market is stuck in a cycle of inertia," said John Challenger, head of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "The fact is, we are going to have to get used to slow job creation in this country."
The details in the report were uniformly bleak. Private-sector employment showed no gains. Government hiring was the only reason the non-farm payroll count rose.
In addition, job creation in December and January was weaker than previously thought, by a combined 23,000 jobs.
And while the unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent, that was only because many people stopped looking for work. Employment as measured by a survey of households plummeted...
...The Bush administration released a forecast last month that looked for average job growth of about 300,000 a month this year -- a forecast that looks increasingly pie-in-the-sky...
...An average of just 42,000 jobs have been created each month in the last three months, down from the 79,000 average of the prior three months. Economists say gains near 150,000 are needed each month just to keep pace with labor force growth.
In addition, the report showed pay gains have slowed, while the average length of time workers who had lost jobs stayed unemployed climbed to its highest level since January 1984...more [Yahoo News]
I am part of those statistics. I move to a new job as of tomorrow. The problem is that I am moving from a private sector job with Verizon Wireless to a Civil Service job at the City of Tacoma. I will have now had four jobs in the past 8 months, as I move up the food chain. The only risk in my new job is its temporary classification. I will know by late October, if I will have to start job hunting again.
Bush has so trashed the job economy - i guess he thinks we can all survive on cake...mj
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