From HuffPost and the Washington Post.....
Today's jobs report shows an economy that's still moving in the right direction but way too slowly, which is why Washington's continuing obsession with the federal budget deficit is insane. Jobs and growth must come first.
The cost of borrowing is so low -- the yield on the ten-year Treasury is near historic lows -- and the need for more jobs and better wages so high, and our infrastructure so neglected, that it's insanity not to borrow more to put more Americans to work rebuilding the nation.
Yes, unemployment is down slightly and 146,000 new jobs were created in November. That's some progress. But don't be blinded by the hype coming out of Wall Street and the White House, both of which want the public to believe everything is going wonderfully well.
The fact is some 350,000 more people stopped looking for jobs in November, and the percent of the working-age population in jobs continues to drop -- now at 63.6 percent, almost the lowest in 30 years. Meanwhile, the average workweek is stuck at 34.4 hours.
The slowness of this recovery isn't because of Hurricane Sandy, which it turns out had very little impact on these job numbers. And it's not because of any uncertainty over the looming "fiscal cliff." Most consumers in November were oblivious about any pending cliff.
The reason the economy is still under-performing is demand is inadequate. Businesses won't create more jobs without enough customers. But consumers can't and won't spend because they don't have the money. Unless or until the private sector -- businesses and consumers -- are able to boost the economy, government must be the spender of last resort.
But the nation has bought into the Republican frame of thinking that we have to "get our fiscal house in order" before the economy can get back on track. Even though Barack Obama was reelected and Democrats gained seats in the House and Senate, that frame is still dominating debate.
Even though we're near a fiscal cliff that illustrates how dangerous deficit reduction can be when so many people are still unemployed, the White House and the Democrats seem incapable of changing the frame of debate.
Jobs must come first. Job creation must be our first priority.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/november-jobs-numbers_b_2257674.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
Unemployment rate drops to 7.7% as economy shrugs off Sandy
By Neil Irwin
The unemployment rate dipped and job creation remained steady in November, as the U.S. economy shrugged off any major impact from Hurricane Sandy and showed surprising resilience in the run-up to the “fiscal cliff.”The November jobs report, released Friday morning, was a pleasant surprise to analysts who had braced for some ugly numbers for a period during which much of the Northeast was reeling from the superstorm. In fact, the national unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, and the nation added 146,000 jobs, not the mere 85,000 that forecasters had expected.
But the report contained some ominous elements as well. The jobless rate dropped in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000, suggesting that people gave up looking for work. The number of people saying they had a job actually fell by 122,000. And the Labor Department revised downward its estimates of job creation in September and October by a combined 49,000 jobs.
Add it all up, and the conclusion is this: The trend that we thought was underway, of a U.S. economy growing steadily but at an unspectacular pace, remains underway. It was not undone either by the hurricane or by anxiety over looming austerity — the tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1 if Congress and the White House can’t reach a deal.
Indeed, the job market has been remarkably consistent over the past year, adding an average of 157,000 jobs a month — well above the level needed to keep pace with a growing labor force, but slow enough that it would still take years to bring unemployment down to the 5 percent to 6 percent range. The new report shows no real shift in that trend, which in its way is still good news: It suggests that businesses did not bring their hiring to a halt in November out of fear that lawmakers will be unable to reach a deal and the nation will hit the fiscal cliff.
The report was “stronger than feared but does not materially change the outlook for the labor market,” economist Ryan Wang of HSBC said in a research note.
Markets were little changed Friday, with the Dow Jones average up 0.2 percent at 11:30 a.m. and the Standard & Poor’s index almost precisely flat.
The November report is the first snapshot of the job market released since President Obama was elected Nov. 6, and the first since negotiations over deficit reduction between the White House and House Republicans over the fiscal cliff have resumed and intensified.
Responding to the report Friday morning, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) referred to those negotiations and focused on the people who are out of work rather than on the drop in the jobless rate.
“The Democrats’ slow-walk strategy is unfair to taxpayers, unfair to small businesses, and unfair to all those looking for work,” Boehner said in a statement. “If the president doesn’t like our plan, he has an obligation to send us one that can pass both houses of Congress as quickly as possible. We’re ready and eager to work with him on such a proposal.”
Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said in a statement that “while more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression.”
Forecasters had expected a significant impact from Sandy, which struck at the tail end of October and disrupted commerce in large parts of New Jersey, New York and surrounding states. The level of new claims for unemployment benefits spiked from about 370,000 before the storm to 451,000 in the first week of November.
But the Labor Department said that “survey response rates in the affected states were within normal ranges” and that “our analysis suggests that Hurricane Sandy did not substantively impact the national employment and unemployment estimates for November.” More detailed data will be available Dec. 21, when state jobs numbers will be released, allowing a closer look at any employment changes in the affected states.
The biggest category for job gains was the retail sector, which added 53,000 positions. But that growth could be due to Thanksgiving falling relatively early on the calendar this year, meaning retailers likely added temporary seasonal workers earlier than they normally would.
Other major sectors that saw job gains were professional and business services, which added 43,000 jobs, and leisure and hospitality, with 23,000.
The biggest category for job losses was construction, which shed 20,000 positions, though that may well be a Sandy effect, as construction sites temporarily shut down in the Northeast. If that’s the case, that sector will be expected to rebound in the months ahead, as those construction workers get back on the job and rebuilding efforts bring in more work.
Average hourly pay for private sector workers rose four cents to $23.63, a 0.3 percent increase in average weekly earnings.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/unemployment-rate-drops-as-economy-shrugs-off-sandy/2012/12/07/e7d2c482-4070-11e2-a2d9-822f58ac9fd5_print.html
