Jobs numbers pretty much fooled everyone on the econ side, but not anyone on the political side.
The American jobs engine hit stall speed in May, with the economy adding just 69,000 new jobs while the unemployment rate climbed to 8.2 percent.
As another summertime swoon looms, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that job creation missed economist estimates for 158,000 new positions and the jobless rate rose for the first time in nearly a year.
Labor force participation remains near 30-year lows though incrementally better than last month, rising to 63.8 percent.
The unemployment rate that counts discouraged workers rose as well, swelling to 14.8 percent form 14.5 percent in April.
Long-term unemployment also took a sharp upturn, with the number of those out of work for 27 weeks or more jumping from 5.1 million to 5.4 million. The average duration of unemployment moved from 39.1 weeks to 39.7 weeks.
“It’s painfully obvious the economic recovery in the U.S. isn’t just slowing down, it’s pulling up the emergency brake. And, lack of job creation isn’t the only critical concern. Wages/Income is sharply lower,” said Todd Schoenberger, managing principal The BlackBay Group in New York.
Your headline: “GOP Plan To Throttle Economy Ahead Of Crucial Elections Proceeding Apace.”
Open thread.
[UPDATE] Yeah, pretty much every gorram thing Chuck Pierce says on this.He cannot win re-election on the merits if he’s mixing pale middle-class nostrums with deficit-hawk snake oil. The nation is in crisis now. It’s not in as deep a crisis as it was when he came into office, when we were shedding 800,000 jobs a month, but the unemployment level we have now is not sustainable in a viable political democracy. The media will be no help. This morning, as the crows came to sit upon the Capitol, I heard one commentator after another talk about how the jobs figures were depressed because the corporate class in this country was “concerned” about, or “uncertain of,” the situation in Europe. This is all my balls. They’re still hiring people in Malaysia, and in China, and everywhere else that people will work for 40 cents a day and no bathroom breaks. They’re not thinking about Greece when they do that. They’re not hiring people in this country because, frankly, and I know their tender fee-fees will be injured by this, the average American corporate CEO has the same relationship to patriotism as John Edwards had to his marriage vows. But he cannot run on any of this, either, not credibly, anyway. He lost that opportunity a couple of years ago. This morning, it’s hard to see a way forward for him on this, except to argue that the ditch was deeper than he thought it was, which is, let’s face it, an argument for dullards.