Economy added 173,000 jobs in August, a bit of a miss, but upward revisions in June and July added 44,000 jobs to make up for it. Unemployment rate down to 5.1% from 5.3%. Not stellar, but very solid.
Hours worked and hourly wages up 0.3%, up 2.2% for the year. Labor force participation rate unchanged.
Open thread otherwise.
Baud
The wage growth is what we need now.
It hurts to think about where’d we be if America had stuck with a Democratic Congress.
Germy Shoemangler
Quote of the day:
“You know a broken clock is right once a day. The bottom line is I’m still here, I’m still working.”
– Rick Perry
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
Maybe he uses one of those 24-hour clocks.
SFAW
Obama’s Reign of Error continues. Terrible jobs report, only LOSERS like it. Wage growth less than 10 percent? He’s trying to drive us all into the poorhouse. If The Donald is elected, wage growth will top 30 percent per month. Everybody will be rich, and America will be great again! And Classy!
It’ll take President Trump weeks! to dig America out of the hole created by the Anchor-Baby-in-Reverse in Chief. If Obummer hadn’t nearly destroyed the country, it would only take President Trump days – maybe only hours – to create more wealth for American citizens than has ever been created, by all countries/companies combined, since the Dawn of Man.
And the sick thing is: the above screed is probably a shitload more rational than the “thoughts” that go through the “brain” of the typical Rethug voter.
SFAW
@Baud:
Maybe, but then he’d probably want to know why it only goes up to 23.
Benw
@SFAW: needs more ALL CAPS and maybe a reference to REAL AMERICAN HERO Kim Davis.
SFAW
@Benw:
I knew I was forgetting something.
Thanks, Obama.
Joel
Stupid Pennsylvania won’t pass a budget, keeping my wage increase from happening.
boatboy_srq
@Germy Shoemangler: What broken clock is Perry talking about that has a 24-hour face?
Dollars to doughnuts HEB! will try to spin this as “Obummer ain’t puttin’ peeps to work”. You’d think being a former governor of FL he’d have some appreciation of a retirement free of the necessity of maintaining an income – oh, right: Republican, and a Bush… nevermind.
PeakVT
Good, but as has been the case throughout this recovery, not great. E2P is still much lower than it was before the recession. CR has the graphs.
MattF
Not good enough to get the Fed off the fence. More market volatility to come.
q: Will the market go up or down?
a: Yes.
SFAW
@boatboy_srq:
Many years ago, well before Fat Nino and his Gang of Thugs imposed W on an unsuspecting nation, my brother said to me that HW picked Quayle because J. Danforth reminded him of his son, George.
I mention this, because I think it’s hilarious that out of W, Jeb!, and JDQ, Quayle appears to be the smartest. I don’t believe in god, but if there were, that alone would be the strongest evidence that:
A) He has a sense of humor
B) He’s a sick or mean bastard
C) He’s flipping us off.
boatboy_srq
@SFAW: Exactly.
JGabriel
Zandar @ Top:
I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. I mean, is August really a month where we see a lot of hiring? We’re likely to see job growth tick upward again in September.
Baud:
Seconded.
SFAW
@boatboy_srq:
Was that for the lyrics? Or the vid? I’m hoping the former, because I really don’t want to watch the rest of it (after the first 15 seconds). Combo of squeamishness, and friends who went far too young.
Zandar
@JGabriel: Yeah, economists have not done a very good job of getting August right in the last several years, actually.
And again, the upward revisions for June/July really put it in line with the forcasts (which were about 217k or so).
BGinCHI
Imagine how much better the jobs and economy situations will be when ACA is finally repealed and gay marriage is constitutionally prohibited.
Germy Shoemangler
The Onion: Frenzied Trump Supporters Admit They’d Be Just As Happy Tearing Him To Pieces
SFAW
@BGinCHI:
And we can live off the fat of the land, right George?
Occasional Reader
I have been in Europe for work this week, and have been utterly devastated by the pictures of the drowned Syrian boy and the story of his father’s desperate, failed fight to keep his family alive.
I have a three year old son with dark hair, and it’s hard not to imagine him on that beach instead. The little shirt, the little shoes, the lifeless body that looks like he’s only sleeping. It’s so utterly devastating – I can’t bear it, but I also can’t unsee it. It’s an indidual, poignant tragedy that has humanized the much broader catastophe that has been unfolding for a few years now, with about half of Syria’s population of 12m people displaced from their homes by a war that Western governments helped create. It’s seriously f****d up.
Not knowing what else to do, I donated to the UNHCR this morning. Here’s a link in case anyone is interested. There is no silver bullet here, but at least it’s something. My heart goes out to Aylan’s father. http://donate.unhcr.org/international/general
BGinCHI
@SFAW: We will live off the fat of our bootstraps.
gene108
@Baud:
And Democratic statehouses that were not looking to lay off government employees in 2011 and 2012.
People are so distraught right now.
Some of it is general insecurity caused by the Great Recession, which is understandable.
But I do wonder how much is media generated, specifically right-wing media.
So many social indicators are good, such teen pregnancy rates, crime and high school graduation rates, that I shudder to think how folks would react, if we had escalating social problems like we did in the 1970’s and 1980’s.
But too many people are convinced crime is at an all time high, kids are less educated than before, etc. etc., which is one reason I think Trump is so popular, there are so many distraught people they just want to burn the “whole thing down” and start over.
In many ways things are better today than yesterday, but the good news just does not sink into people’s heads.
Matt McIrvin
The hell of it is, I actually do think that electing a Republican President would lead to some short- to medium-term economic growth, just because various powers that be would deliberately stop holding the economy hostage to destroy the Democratic President. But that’s not any kind of ideological endorsement, it’s the logic of handing your wallet to a mugger.
randy khan
Marriage licenses are being issued in Rowan County – the first same-sex couple in line got their license at 8:15 a.m.
Hallelujah!
Elizabelle
@Occasional Reader: Sad that it takes a visual image to get a lot of folks to wake up and pay attention. (I don’t mean you; noted that CNN is finally today leading with the Syrian/European migrant crisis that has transfixed European channels for some time now.)
Makes me wonder how publishing and broadcasting — from time to time — (not overly gruesome) photos of little kids dead from finding guns, or that mom in Wal-Mart lying beside a shopping cart in an aisle, shot in the head by her toddler, might play.
Might traumatize, might desensitize, but might make people think twice about the garbage rhetoric spewed by the NRA and even more militant gun rights groups.
Cops see these images day in and day out. Might be some basis of why they’re developing the “us vs. them” mentality. They have seen guns blazing away in the most unexpected situations.
And maybe include a few pictures of people who died a few years ago, who could be helped by Obamacare today, had they been able to hold on.
The migrant child photo is affecting because he is so tiny and vulnerable and like everyone else’s child. People can’t unsee him.
(Just, whatever you do, don’t set anything to a Sarah MacLaughlan soundtrack!)
Elizabelle
@Baud:
Or if they’d removed the jackboot from tyrant Obama’s neck.
Lost opportunities. Not going to get some of them back, and not at the price we could have.
Low cost money, to improve our infrastructure and put Americans back to work on that and green energy. Making them less susceptible to outrageous rhetoric by potential demagogues and puppets for the plutocrats.
But no. Deficit! I blame the Very Serious People who can’t see the forest for the trees.
Occasional Reader
@Elizabelle: It’s been ever thus, hasn’t it? It can take something shocking to get people to think or take action about something outside of their day-to-day concerns. Photojournalism has a visceral punch in that regard. That photog will probably win a Pulitzer.
Mr Stagger Lee
well my temp job ends today, oh btw I was there for nearly two years, the boss ships us out for cheaper temps. So forgive me if I skip the champagne and oyster celebrations.
rikyrah
sigh….
sigh….
Police in Texas Hospital Shoot Patient in the Chest
Thursday, 03 September 2015
By Aaron Miguel Cantú,
Christian Alexander Pean, a fourth-year medical student in New York City, had been anxiously texting his father in Houston throughout the morning to inquire about his younger brother, Alan Christopher Pean, a patient at St. Joseph Medical Center in Texas. The night before, on August 26, Alan had called his parents to tell them he was in the middle of a panic attack.
“We knew it was an acute mental health crisis,” Christian told
Truthout. Alan’s parents implored their son to seek help, so Alan, a
student at the University of Houston, drove himself to the hospital.
While in the parking lot, he experienced a severe mental health episode and crashed into multiple parked cars. He was treated for possible injuries in the emergency room, and officially admitted to the hospital early the next morning, when he was transferred to the medical psychiatric ward on the eighth floor.
Alan’s parents, including his father, who is a doctor, flew up to
Houston that morning from their home in McAllen, Texas. They immediately went to St. Joseph to corroborate Alan’s psychiatric health and implored the staff that he needed inpatient mental health treatment. But the hospital seemed bent on discharging him, Christian said. The staff did not even summon a physician to speak with Alan’s parents, claiming no one was available.
Frustrated that their concerns were dismissed but assured that their
son was in good hands, Alan’s parents left to their hotel a few blocks from the hospital. A few hours later, they received a call from St. Joseph Medical Center: Alan was being discharged and was ready to be picked up.
In the short time it took his parents to walk back to the hospital,
however, something terrible happened to Alan. His parents were told when they arrived that their son was in the intensive care unit. When Christian heard the news, his mind immediately leaped to horrifying possibilities; as a Black man living in the US, he had been conditioned to fear the worst for himself and his family.
“My dad texts me and says, something happened, he’s in the ICU,”
Christian said. “And one minute after, I asked, did they shoot him? I
instantly thought that was what had happened.”
Christian’s worst fears proved true.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/32630-police-in-texas-hospital-shoot-patient-in-the-chest
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
But no. Deficit! I blame the Very Serious People who can’t see the forest for the trees.
Worse they can’t see the forest for the leaves. Which is why when they are running around with their hair on fire they keep running into the trees.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: This is a bigger epidemic than ebola and our country is still not addressing the problem.
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: OT, but I just wanted to say that I am hoping for better than expected news for you next week.
Linda Featheringill
@rikyrah:
That is very, very sad. It leaves me with nothing more to say.
My condolences to the family on their loss.
Another Holocene Human
@boatboy_srq: Part of the purpose of Obamacare was to reduce the labor participation rate, in fact.
That’s good for families, and good for workers.
Another Holocene Human
@Mr Stagger Lee: I hope his new temps wreck his company. Oh, who am I kidding. Even the stupidest asshole looks like a geenius in an up economy.
Here’s hoping your ship comes in with the next job.
Another Holocene Human
@WaterGirl: They can’t blame this one on dusky hued immigrants. Not worth the trouble to come up with scary intro/outros.
Elizabelle
@Linda Featheringill:
Happily, Alan Pean is still with us, and recovering.
Whole story is worth a read. Alan — whose father is a doctor! — should not have been discharged as abruptly as he was — against his family’s wishes — and that’s what put him out in the parking lot with the shoot ’em up cops.
Texas is discharging mental health patients way too fast, without access to the care they need, among other issues.
Good story, rikyrah. Thanks for informing us.
Ruckus
A man with mental health issues is shot.
Sad? Yes I can see that. But enraged might be more helpful. This has been going for well, ever in this country. It is far past time to change this story. So many pieces of wrong here. Racism, mental heath care, police with only one tool in their tiny little brains. And that only scratches the surface. He was in a hospital which is being told that he is a person with mental health problems and someone calls the cops? Current day cops? What the hell do they know about mental health? However much they do or don’t know, their job is not to provide mental health care. They don’t even know how to control a situation without shooting someone or every one. And that is their job. We discuss a county clerk not doing her job and half the comments are about her life, not what she is or isn’t doing that she’s getting paid to do. Do we expect too much of cops? Considering that they seem to be doing such a lousy job maybe so. So why are they being called when the problem is that we have horrible mental health care in this country? Is the problem too complex for people to grasp? Is being in need too grave a problem to address? We are all in need for one thing or another at various times in our lives but very, very few of us are in need of killing. If the only answer is to kill, then as a society we are way past saving.
I thought it was the very last resort to take a life, not the first.
Elizabelle
@Mr Stagger Lee: I hope champagne is in all of our futures as we celebrate your new job, sooner rather than later.
rikyrah
BWDenali @theonlyadult 1h1 hour ago
Obama brought the #unemployment lower than Reagan did. They literally got *nothing* anymore. Expect the derangement to break all records.
agorabum
@boatboy_srq: 24 hour clocks exist; I think they were popular in the Adriatic and there is one in Venice iirc. But I don’t think that’s what Ole goodhair is talking about…
boatboy_srq
@SFAW: Lyrics.
boatboy_srq
@agorabum: I suppose you can’t blame Perry for failing the young-as-he-looks test and falling asleep before the second time the clock was right…
A guy
The first time unemployment claims on aug 29 were 282k. Greater than expected. The new,jobs created were 173k at last report, lower than expected. How could anybody except a blind diehard Obama supporter spin this as anything but crap?
SFAW
@A guy:
By looking at the pre-Recession figures for your love object, and seeing that they’re worse than Obama’s by 30K-40K?
By realizing that getting even lower than the 15-year low for first-time claims is a lot harder than them going higher?
“Crap,” as you call it, is the 300+K that was the typical under W
“Crap,” as you call it, is W getting a seasonally adjusted initial claims of 282 for ONE WEEK of W’s clusterfuck, and never better than that.
Come back when you have something non-stupid to say.
Zinsky
Don’t have much time to post, but as the energy return on energy invested (EROEI) ratio of our modern society continues to plummet, expect slower and then backwards economic growth. We should be taking steps to prepare for this, but of course we aren’t, due to the regressives. When the guns come out,things will really get ugly.
A guy
Don’t care bout the past. I care about now. And now under Obama sucks
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
You were right!
SFAW
@A guy:
Shorter “A guy”:
I FUCKING HATE OBAMA!!! HATE HIM HATE HIM HATE HIM!
You don’t care about the past? Right. You don’t, until you need to find something to support your bitching.
Moran.
SFAW
@A guy:
Oh, and if you had an actual job, you’d probably be whining less.