The NY Times has some decent economic news, which will probably be rendered meaningless by the past week’s events:
The economy created 169,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low, the government reported today, indicating the economy was still growing briskly last month in spite of higher energy prices.
But with more than half a million people displaced and the nation’s oil and gasoline facilities still struggling to recover from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it remains unclear how the economy will fare in the coming months, economists said. Many analysts have already downgraded their forecast for future growth and say the chances of a recession have increased.
“We know that going into the hurricane the economy was fine, things were status quo,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR Inc., a New York-based research firm. “The problem with the hurricane is in addition to being a regional disaster and a tragedy, it has affected the energy industry and international trade.”
The jobs number was slightly below economists expectations of 190,000 jobs but the jobless rate, at 4.9 percent, down from 5 percent in July, was lower than predicted because the number of Americans who said they were employed rose faster than the total labor force. Strong gains were seen in the construction sector (up by 25,000 jobs) and education and health services (up 43,000 jobs), while manufacturers cut back their payrolls by another 14,000 jobs.
With gasoline prices topping $3 a gallon in much of the country and a swelling population of displaced refugees in states along the Gulf of Mexico, the economy may not be able to sustain its earlier upward course.
I have no idea where to even begin speculating about the impact of Katrina.
KC
Gawd. Thank you John. Keep the good news coming. A little good news is nice news.
neil
Uh. I do think that America has lost rather more than 160,000 jobs in the last few days, don’t you?
Also, if unemployment is down but poverty is up and incomes are down, that’s bad — worse than it would be if poverty was up, incomes were down but unemployment was down.
neil
I mean, up.
jobiuspublius
I wonder where the Katrina survivors will get jobs? I hope they get the rebuild jobs.
neil
John, this may be where to start.
BinkyBoy
Total up the number of working, subtract the number of new jobs and then look at the trend. If you compare this with rising average wages, it appears less people are working, but those that are working are working more hours or more than 1 job.
But thats just my damn liberal anti-Bush hate America habit talking out my ass. I really wish I didn’t know how to read all those cutsie graphs and make sense of it.
Ancient Purple
Only if they are already on the payroll at Haliburton.
jobiuspublius
I wonder if they’ll import out sourceing ala Iraq.
jobiuspublius
I can here the recruiters now: “Join the National Guard, relieve disaster in the Gulf Coast.”
jobiuspublius
FUK, I need sperling and gramar leesons!