December jobs report better than anticipated

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

In a hopeful sign, the December jobs report produced the kind of numbers that is slowly cutting into the mass of unemployment created by the Bush Great Recession. Steve Benen reports at the Political Animal – Job growth picks up steam, unemployment drops:

Mitt Romney will probably find today’s jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics very discouraging. The rest of us, though, have reason to smile.

The U.S. economy gained 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the U.S. would add 150,000 jobs last month, with the jobless rate edging up to 8.7% from an initially reported 8.6% in November.

As is always the case, there was a gap between the private and public sectors. Businesses added 212,000 jobs last month, while budget cuts forced the public sector to shed 12,000 jobs, which continues to be a major drag on the overall employment picture.

That said, when monthly job growth reaches 200,000, that’s genuinely good news, and the drop in the overall unemployment to 8.5% puts the figure at nearly a three-year low, which is also encouraging. Under the circumstances, this is one of the best jobs reports since the recession began four years ago.

In terms of revisions, the job numbers for October were slightly better than previously reported, and the totals for November were slightly worse. The result is largely a wash.

For the 2011 calendar year, BLS data shows the economy added 1.64 million jobs, which obviously isn’t even close to good enough, but it was still the strongest year for job creation since 2006.

Steve Benen continues at the Political Animal – Private sector jobs looking much stronger:

Overall, the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December, but as has been the case for a long while, it’s the private sector that continues to fare better. Last month, businesses added 212,000 jobs, making it one of the best months since the recession began.

For the 2011 calendar year, BLS data shows the U.S. private sector has now added 1.89 million jobs in 2011, well ahead of last year’s private-sector total of 1.2 million, and the best year for businesses since 2005. Since March 2010, American businesses have created 3.13 million jobs. (In 2008, the private sector lost 3.8 million jobs, and in 2009, the private sector lost 5 million jobs.)

Just for fun, let’s add one more homemade chart, showing annual job losses/gains in the private sector over the last two decades. Red columns point to years under Republican administrations, blue columns point to job totals under Democratic administrations. (Note: 2011 was the best year for private-sector job growth since 2005, and the second best since 1999.)

In economics, employment is a lagging indicator. President Obama's first budget reflecting his policy choices was the FY 2010 budget that technically began on October 1, 2009. The economy was hemorrhaging jobs in an economic free-fall when Barack Obama was sworn in as president of the United States in January 2009. Economists rightly assign those job losses, a lagging indicator, to the Bush Great Recession.

Willard "Mittens" Romney would have you believe that the 2009 job losses belong to President Obama beginning on the arbitrary date of his Inauguration, before any Obama policies to correct the economic free-fall could possibly be enacted by Congress. Romney claims to understand economics. If he did, he would acknowledge that employment is a lagging indicator. He is rather an opportunistic liar.

"Mittens" Romney has made it a part of his campaign to routinely assert that President Obama has "made things worse" since his election. As the above charts clearly indicate, this is plainly false. Romney is essentially telling FAUX Nation GOP voters, "are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?" He is delusional.