How you view July's unemployment figures depends on where you sit.
President Barack Obama's chief economic adviser, Alan Krueger, said "today's unemployment rate provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to recover from the worst downturn since the Great Depression."
GOP candidate Mitt Romney called it "a hammer blow to middle class families." His campaign website makes the extravagant claim that a Romney administration would create 12 million new jobs in four years. (Even President Obama, no stranger to hyperbole, only promised 5 million new "green" jobs when he was a candidate.)
The Associated Press offered only the faint observation that the new jobless numbers were "a hopeful sign" — hopeful, perhaps, in the sense that they were much better than expected, although still weak.
The unemployment rate ticked upward slightly from 8.2 percent to 8.3 percent. In California, the latest available numbers show the unemployment rate stands at 10.7 percent, while Ventura County's rate is 9.2 percent.
On the national level, the economy added 163,000 new jobs, well above the anticipated 100,000 and much better than June's 64,000. Since the start of the year, the economy has added an average of 151,000 new jobs a month, barely enough to keep pace with population growth.
The gains were spread across the economy, except for construction, which lost 1,000, and government employment, which continues to drop, shedding 9,000 jobs last month. This kind of incremental, ambiguous improvement in the economy looks to be with us through the election campaign and that will be the battleground for the candidates.
President Obama's economic policies are a known quantity. Mr. Romney's economic platform is a detail-free promise to revive the country through tax and regulatory reform and basically undoing everything President Obama has done.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed 36 percent of voters believe Mr. Romney has a better plan for the economy versus 31 percent who think President Obama's policies are better.
It all depends on where you sit, and from this vantage point it looks like about two-thirds of the voters don't believe either one.
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Comments » 15
Bongo writes:
Folks look at unemployment rates in Greece to see where a deficit spending nanny state will get us.
BLW930 writes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcqb9...
smragan writes:
Folks, look at how we wasted $800 Billion on a failed stimulus package. Obama has nothing to show for the $800 billion he flushed down the toilet. No Golden Gate Bridge, No Hoover Dam, No Apollo Space Program, No massive electrical grid infrastructure project, obscene levels of unemployment, ridiculous amount of underemployed, hopelessness in folks leaving the work force, anemic GDP, HIGHEST POVERTY RATE SINCE 1965. Nothing accomplished.
However, Obama has played 104 rounds of golf in 43 months in office. Bush played 34 rounds in 8 years. But then who's counting?
Oh the silliness and lazy thinking of Democrats.
smragan writes:
What is the empirical evidence that increased spending helps the economy?
1) 2000 - total federal spending = $1.8T and 18% of GDP
2) 2008 - total federal spending = $3.0T and 21% of GDP
3) 2012 - total federal spending = $3.8T and 24% of GDP
Not that the facts matter to Democrats.
smragan writes:
My data comes from the White House Office of Management and Data (OMB). The source are the historical tables 1.1 and 1.2. Anybody, with a high school education can check out the facts on their own. Don't let the left deceive you. It's a no-brainer google search.
smragan writes:
Besides the OMB data above: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/...
Trust me. The $800 billion stimulus flushed down the toilet was a real waste of money.
Here's another powerful link to truth. The truth will set you free.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlg...
smragan writes:
Obama's economic policies have resulted in highest poverty rate since 1965:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48281252/US_Po...
Facts are stubborn things.
smragan writes:
The $800 billion stimulus was a complete waste of money. Nothing was accomplished. The $800 billion stimulus did not improve our infrastructure, did not improve joblessness, did not improve underemployment, did not improve the number you left the work force, did not improve the poverty rate, did not improve GDP rates.
The worst economic recovery from a recession in US history!
Obama's economic policies accomplished virtually nothing.
Talk to your neighbor. Talk to a family member. Unless you live in some kind of bubble you have no idea the amount of fear and hopelessness that exists under the Obama regime.
Everybody must adjust to a new normal of pessimism under Obama.
This is not rocket science. The failed policies of Obama's stimulus boondoggle have only increased our debt and accomplished nothing. There is nothing to show for the $800 billion Obama flushed down a toilet.
As bad as Bush was...at least he accomplished regime change with his deficits. Ha, ha. LOL.
All you can do is make excuses. What will be Obama's excuses in 2013 when he inherits his own economy? Answer me that riddle?
smragan writes:
104 rounds of golf. Really? 104 rounds of golf. Highest poverty rate since 1965.
Enuf said. Goodbye.
Chilibreath writes:
FACT: some people need a hobby!
ProudLiberal writes:
The economy could add 1million jobs a month from now until the election and the right would find a way to blame Obama for the failure. There is no way this president will ever get any credit for anything he has done or will ever do.
That is simply a fact.
smragan writes:
By the way, the labor force shrunk by 150,000. The participation rate slipped to 63.7 percent. And the overall U-6 discouraged-workers unemployment rate increased to 15 percent.
Average hourly earnings registered a slight 0.1 percent increase. But that only adds up to a 1.7 percent increase year-on-year, which is below the rising consumer price index.
So Team Obama will undoubtedly continue to tell us that jobs and the economy are getting better, but this mixed employment report takes the steam out of that argument.
smragan writes:
I can't wait for 2013 if Obama is reelected and he will have to inherit his own lousy economy. The left does not assume personal responsibility or ownership of their own decisions. It's part of that victimhood and blame shifting attitude they espouse.
smragan writes:
1-Average Obama unemployment rate 2011: 153,000 jobs created.
2-Average Obama unemployment rate 2012: 151,000 jobs created.
3-Unemployment RISES to 8.3%
4-Household survey in July indicates a net decrease in employment of 195,000 people.
5-Decreased weekly earnings down--with discouraged workers no longer looking for jobs at 15% and rising.
6-Unemployment for blacks at 15%--and over half of college grads can't find full time jobs.
7-Labor revises it's June jobs figure to 64,000 down from it's initial figure of 80,000 jobs created.
8-An unsustainable Obama 16 trillion deficit.
9-An lost top tier AAA credit rating.
10-Home ownership imploding.
11-Unprecedented food stamps, welfare, and poverty levels.
12-Skyrocketing gas/food prices.
13-GSA/Solyndra fraud and waste.
14-Obama's GM 41% down.
15-Obamas GDP anemic 1.5%
16-Obama's GE outsourced to foreign countries.
17-U.S. drilling outsourced to Latin America.
18-With a 16 trillion Obama debt the U.S. outsourced to China.
19--Ditto, a "C-Span Transparency" Fast & Furious drug cartel gun running Attorney General.
20-Etch A Sketch In-Chief Obama, quote:
"Living within our means...Pay As We Go."
"I intend to cut the deficit by 50% in my first term."
"Unemployment not above 8% with my Stimulus."
"Shovel Ready Jobs."
"Raising the debt ceiling is a sign of leadership FAILURE...IRESPONSIBLE...UNPATRIOTIC."
"Not one dime of your taxes will be raised." (Translation: The Obamacare TAX bankruptcy.)
HOPE & CHANGE!!
horsespinner#218774 writes:
We added 40 skilled green jobs at the recycle center on Del Norte. These jobs involve spreading out the green waste and picking out the trash We added 20 high tech green jobs getting people with clipboards to check each load. They want to see which routes get the most garbage. Then they are going into the field looking into the green cans and note who has garbage in the green can. That is 60 high end green jobs in one month. This is only the beginning.
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