November jobs report tops 300,000

The headlines in the New York Times this morning:

• U.S. Economy Added 321,000 Jobs in November; Unemployment Rate Is 5.8%: The gain was the largest monthly jump in payrolls in nearly three years, and average hourly earnings surged 0.4 percent, twice what analysts expected.
• More Jobs and Higher Wages: Recovery Starts to Hit Home: Employers added 321,000 jobs in November, echoing other positive economic data recently and far exceeding analysts’ expectations that payrolls would increase by 230,000.
• These Are the Best Jobs Numbers in Months, Maybe Years: The increase in jobs is good, but the hints that wages are starting to rise is even more so.

Even the reliably Republican Washington Post was forced to report the good news:

• Data put U.S. on track for best job growth in years: The economy added 321,000 jobs in Nov., according to government data, in a sign that the labor market is returning to pre-recession health.
• This is what a real recovery looks like: The economy added 321,000 jobs in November: It was good news all around as the economy added 321,000 jobs in November, 44,000 more in revisions, and workers even got small raises.

Despite the best efforts by Tea-Publican insurrectionists and economic terrorists in the Congress and statehouses to sabotage any economic recovery over the past six years to prevent President Obama from claiming victory in turning around an economy that these Tea-Publicans quite literally blew up with their failed economic policies and nearly destroyed our financial system and the world’s economy, resulting in the Bush Great Recession (actually a depression) just a few short years ago in 2008, the economic rescue policies enacted during Obama’s first two years in office under a Democratic Congress, and the tax increases on the two percent he negotiated after his reelection and the “fiscal cliff” hostage taking by the GOP  in 2013 are working nonetheless.

So how did the American people thank President Obama? They just put the Tea-Publican insurrectionists and economic terrorists who gave us the Bush Great Recession and who have done everything in their power to sabotage any economic recovery back in control of the Congress. WTF?

David Safier who formerly blogged here analogized this to the “battered spouse syndrome” —  repeated cycles of violence and reconciliation, with the victim blaming him or herself for the abuse, and having an irrational belief that the abuser is omnipresent and omniscient. Americans just keep coming back for more abuse at the hands of their GOP abusers. When will they ever learn?

Steve Benen has the November jobs numbers in U.S. job growth soars, tops 300k :

The new report from Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added 321,000 jobs in November. The overall unemployment rate stayed at 5.8 and remains at its lowest point in over six years.

Once again, public-sector layoffs did not drag down the overall employment figures. Though jobs reports over the last few years have shown monthly government job losses, in November, the private sector added 314,000 while the public sector added 7,000. The latter may not sound like much, but after several years in which that total was negative, it’s at least somewhat heartening.

As for the revisions, all of the news was excellent: September’s totals were revised up from 256,000 to 271,000, while October’s figures were revised up, from 214,000 to 243,000. Combined, that’s an additional 44,000 jobs.

All told, this is one of the best jobs report Americans have seen in many years. There were some spikes in early 2010, but those were largely the result of temporary Census hiring, while this new data points to genuine, robust job growth. It remains very difficult for President Obama’s critics to explain these numbers: the hiring boom is underway after tax increases and full implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

All told, over the last 12 months, the U.S. economy has added over 2.73 million jobs overall and 2.66 million in the private sector. What’s more, November was the 50th consecutive month of positive job growth – the best stretch since 1939 – and the 56th consecutive month in which we’ve seen private-sector job growth – the longest on record.

At this point, with the calendar year nearly over, 2014 will easily be the best year for U.S. job creation since 1999.

Here’s another chart showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Benen comments in a later post:

Making matters worse for the White House’s critics, today’s job report also showed increased wages and a U6 jobless rate – Fox News’ favorite – at a six-year low.

If this were happening under President Romney, the RNC would be organizing parades in his honor.

Before any of our Tea-Publican trolls try to claim that GOP jobs bills have helped the economic recovery, you would first have to identify any genuine GOP jobs bill enacted over the past four years. I have been over this before but it bears repeating. The Huffington Post reports this week, Jobs Bills That Don’t Create Jobs: What Republican Control Could Mean:

According to exit polls, the economy was the top issue on voters’ minds. During the campaign, Republican leaders doggedly promoted the idea that the GOP was the party to turn it around, often touting a list of 46 “jobs bills” that have passed in the House.

Yet all that legislation may actually be more of a public relations stunt than a solid strategy to boost employment, according to economists interviewed by The Huffington Post.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) hinted as much — unintentionally — in a classic Twitter fail in October. The blank list was roundly mocked online.

Nonetheless, Boehner and other Republicans trotted out their compendium repeatedly during the campaign, asserting that their legislation would already have created jobs if only the Democratic Senate and President Barack Obama had supported the bills. (They made that claim in part by ignoring the fact that six of the bills had been endorsed or signed by the president.)

* * *

[The GOP] message rang hollow for the five economists who reviewed the bills for HuffPost.

Almost none of those measures, the economists said, are likely to have the measurable, immediate impact on job growth that Boehner claimed his party would have delivered. Instead, the bills would serve more to promote other parts of the Republicans’ agenda — and, in most cases, aid large corporations.

* * *

With the start of the next Congress only about a month away, many of these GOP bills are sure to make a comeback. Below, read the economists’ takes on what the legislation would really do, and browse through the slideshow detailing all of the bills at the end of the story.

Continue reading Jobs Bills That Don’t Create Jobs: What Republican Control Could Mean.