October jobs report exceeds expectations

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Someone tell BLS Truther Sen. Chuck Grassley (I.O.W.A. – idiots out wandering around) that the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued its October jobs report on time as scheduled, despite Hurricane Sandy earlier this week.

Let the BLS Truthers freak out over today's new jobs report: the U.S. economy created 171,000 jobs in October, far more than expected, while American businesses created 184,000 jobs — the best month for the private sector since February. U.S. job growth accelerates, exceeds expectations:

The overall unemployment rate ticked slightly higher, to 7.9%, but that's the result of a positive trend — more Americans entered the workforce, which is exactly what we'd hope to see in an improving economy. [That would be the discouraged workers who have "given up" that we hear so much about.]

Even more encouraging, the new report revised job totals from August and September, and both were updated in a good direction, adding a combined 84,000.

For context, I'd note that so far in 2012 (which still has two months to go), the economy has created over 1.56 million jobs, which is already better than five of the eight years of the Bush/Cheney era.

Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession. [There have been 32 consecutive months of private sector job growth.]

Steve Benen further reports there was quite a bit of economic news out Thursday morning, and all of it was encouraging.

The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity rose to 51.7 from 51.5 in September, topping economists' expectations for a slight decline to 51.2, according to a Reuters poll of economists.

A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector. It was the second month in a row the sector has grown after contracting through the summer.

Also Thursday morning, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence jumped in October to its highest level in nearly five years; Chrysler reported its best sales in nearly five years; and initial unemployment claims continued to improve.

This comes a week after improved GDP figures, and two weeks after improved housing data.

The economy is growing and is getting better despite Tea-Publican efforts to sabotage the U.S. economy for partisan political gain (public sector employment declined again in October due to Tea-Publican austerity measures at the state and local government level). If you want economic growth, you are going to have to elect Democrats to Congress.

As the old saying goes, “If you want to live like a Republican, you have to vote for Democrats.”

UPDATE: American Bridge 21st Century (AmericanBridgePAC.org) put together this chart (h/t Crooksandliarscom):