How are the homeless accounted for in the jobs report?
1
Well done, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi!
4
thanks
why are the u-6 numbers not here? come on New York times, you can do better
With 18 months of Job Gains, Unemployment Is Lowest Since 1969, and we thank our President!
2
I know the numbers are great, but I am curious how the dollars earned in 1980 compare with the employment dollars in earlier years. That seems to me to be the most important metric to compare to find real meaning in these figures.
I see RodA's web site, but the data there only looks to be for the last 2 years. Anybody know where this is over a longer period of time?
[email protected]
I think the Medicare situation is holding back many workers there is a certain threshold that some people can be at where you are earning too much and the Obamacare premiums kick in and you are actually losing money by working. Anyone with any sort of common sense will reason why would I want to work just to go into a financial hole in medical premiums.?Just drop down a few thousand per year and get on Medicaid
1
Of course unemployment is low. Most ppl I know, including myself work multiple jobs/gigs to pay our bills. My husband is a senior level IT consultant and most of our friends and family are educated, and experienced. But we are all terrified of the future in which we cant afford to retired and yet are being forced out of our positions in favor of cheaper, younger employees.
There are jobs requiring a masters degree that pay less than $20 per hour. Hard to rejoice having a job that doesn't afford you the ability to support even a modestly comfortable quality of life.
9
The most telling thing about these statistics is the trend lines. If we look at that we can see that the unemployment rate has been going down at a steady rate since the peak of the recession in 2010. If the massive tax cuts (which most agree favored the corporations and the wealthy), the trade wars and the elimination of environmental regulations have been the source of an employment boon we should see a discernible inflection point in these trend lines. No such thing can be seen. Same rate of decline, same pace, no dramatic change. (By the way, let's not forget that prior to 2017 these same statistics were derided as "phony" and "rigged" by the current president.)
The more interesting thing will be to watch these trend lines going forward. What will flooding the economy with deficit-sourced tax cuts, deregulation and trade wars give us two and three years out? What happens when the fundamental building blocks of a steadily growing economy are radically altered? What will massively growing deficits and long term debt incur? How will interest rates rising impact our housing market and Wall Street? What will trade wars with China and Europe do to the cost of goods and our exports? What will be the long-term results of environmental deregulation to land and people? How will health insurance costs and health care itself be impacted by the purposeful dismantling of the Affordable Care Act?
I suspect we'll find that statistical inflection point.
4
Middle class and poor Americans, that is, most of us, can read "3.7% unemployment rate", but it hasn't affected lives positively.
The hailed monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report, from which comes this number, has a bizarre definition of "employment" in their glossary.
Their glossary says a person is "employed" if they worked one hour, during the week of the BLS monthly survey, and were surveyed. The BLS surveys roughly 10,000 random households each month for employment data.
Their definition of employed means someone unemployed for 10 years, was surveyed and happened to babysit for pay for one hour during the monthly survey week.
The BLS calls them "employed", and they become part of an artificially low unployment rate.
But, with headlines boasting of new jobs added, we need to know what sector they're in, e.g., fast food, warehouse work, tech? Are the jobs part-time or full? Is a living wage paid ($15-$20/hour)? Are they union jobs? Is the work "under the table" work?
To pay some Amazon workers $15/hr., how many were fired so that Amazon could hire cheaper temps.?
I think, under that glorious headline of low unemployment, lives a harsh reality of people hired for part-time, or temp. work, paid $2.10-$12.00 per hour, having roommates to help pay rent, or living in their cars, and little for healthcare, food or clothes.
Neither that headline unemployment statistic, nor the DOW, tell the true story of American employment.
10
Though I don't think that the decline is due to this administration as much as it is a tail of the previous one, there is no reason for celebration. This statistics looks at jobs. It does NOT look at the people who are in them. Many are working far beneath their skill and income level. Many are working two or more jobs. Many are working yet are reliant on social nets to survive. And many more are working as contract employees, leaving them at greater risk for financial and security disaster.
I WOULD be able to celebrate if there was information showing that spendable income was increasing. If the gap between CEO's and employees was balancing out to more rational ratio. If these workers were all covered by health services.
4
@Mountain Dragonfly
Here in the Rust Belt, we are seeing the rebirth of manufacturing in Detroit, Flint and Saginaw. Jobs with meaningful benefits, meaningful wages, and if the current policies continue, a future. The idea that this change is as result of “The Tail of the previous administration” is laughable and offensive to someone who watched the Stamping and forging industries leave the country. It is as a direct result of this administrations trade, tax and environmental policies that “Help Wanted” signs are out in Highland Park, Mi.
3
Thank You President Obama for eight years of economic recovery including regulation of financial institutions that brought about the down turn.
President Trump, please explain how to alleviate the coming crash due to the snowballing deficit created by your new tax plan. Also, what should unsuspecting, trusting people do when your de-regulation of the kind of corporate-profit-making-algorithms take away their homes or their breathable air?
3
Still many not captured from those who are in the gig economy not counted as employees, not on government unemployment benefits.
These numbers are always skewed because of those who fell out in 2008. Artificially optimistic.
Trump takes credit. Numbers were already going up when Obama was President.
3
I deplore these articles because they are disingenuous and misleading. In 1969, a minimum wage worker could afford a one bedroom apartment in most locations across America. I think reporting terms about the economy need to be adjusted for 2018 realities. The implications of traditional terms and statisics are moribund and anachronistic if not downright deceptive.
5
Democrats are going down this November. Reality is finally gonna slap them in the face. President Trump is a great President and the Democrats have no-one to run against him in 2020. The Supreme Court will soon reverse all the leftist social decisions of the Obama years and America will be great once again.
4
@John Murray Thanks, John, for the parody. With the grim news all about us, it's great to see that someone hasn't lost his sense of humor.
3
and most just above minimum wage.
5
The jobs report is like unlimited Internet data. It’s unlimited lousy -slow data. The jobs are low-paying no benefit jobs.
6
Excellent article.
As other commenters have described, inflation is as high as the rate of increase in wages so real deflated wages are not rising at all.
At a local unionized supermarket near me, the majority of workers are part time thus not getting the higher wage rate of fulltimers who are now mostly retiring. So most earn $13 an hour whereas the fulltimers get $22 and these are not replaced as they retire or quit.
Yes there are lots of jobs paying under $15 an hour, but few paying over $25. $15 an hour job even if one can work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year is $30,000, and you can barely survive in this metro area for that income.
6
This is very good. Bravo! Congratulations.
But...
The claims by the current occupant of the Oval Office about this are predictable. And false. You went through a recession that can only be described as "a bit shy of the Great Depression". It is - in a way - normal to have a very robust recovery afterwards.
But what about wages, for example? It is very easy to have zero unemployment if you run a slave-nation. It's not quite that bad in the U.S., but $15/hr. (as recently done by Amazon) should be the minimum everywhere. Would the unemployment-rate be that low if people were paid a living wage? I doubt it!
Returning to politics: what will the tariffs imposed by "The Donald" do to the economy, long term? It is absolutely possible that we are seeing a "bubble", and that the economy is - in real terms - in the last phase of ascent to a mountaintop, ready to plunge into the abyss on the other side.
It is DJT's mission to destroy America by any means necessary. That's what he got paid for $500M via Cyprus and Deutsche Bank. He already has everybody on the verge of a civil war, has destroyed the House, the Senate and the Supreme Court, has alienated the U.S. to the world and wrecked havoc on so many fronts that it's hard to keep up.
Destroying the U.S. economy may be his final target. And to do so having good numbers at the start will camouflage his true intentions. The trade war with China (and the world!) will cost you dearly. Prepare for another recession, starting July 2020.
6
So if unemployment continues to trend down long after Trump was elected, we should thank Obama. But the moment unemployment creeps up, it’s Trump’s fault? The same outlook seems true for the stock market. Ok, sounds like we have a plan.
1
Reality check mean while unemployment rate for over 55 remains 18 percent. 400 thousand people retire from jobs pay living wage replaced with 200thousand temp jobs with little no health care. Add this all up an we have incredible shrinking labor force is lest then what was emplyed in the great depression.
11
These "happy, happy" reports are sill stats that don't illustrate the whole picture. For greater illumination, see https://www.nber.org/digest/sep11/w17040.html
The review by Laurent Belsie includes the following:
"In 'Job Loss in the Great Recession: Historical Perspective from the Displaced Workers Survey, 1984-2010' (NBER Working Paper No. 17040), Henry Farber notes that the extent of unemployment, the difficulty in finding a new job, and lost earnings for the unemployed were all especially high during this downturn. . . . DWS data probably paint too rosy a picture overall, Farber warns. "First, time spent unemployed by those workers who are re-employed is not considered. Second, more hinges on employment, particularly full-time employment, in the U.S. than in other developed countries. Health insurance and pensions are closely linked to employment, and many workers do not have alternative access to these important benefits. This makes job loss an expensive and damaging event on average."
2
We need to remember that the unemployment rate is just one element of a very broad picture. The BLS web page has dozens of ways to look at the employment picture.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/tables.htm#multjob
The wage picture can tell a very different story. The full time/part time picture can tell a different story. The jobs with benefits story. The union participation story. The state-by-state story. The labor participation story. Etc.
3.7% is a great number but it can hide the structural changes that are changing this nation not always for the better.
8
This is simply another thing that Trump inherited, along with over $400 million from his father. Trump and his supporters will delude themselves into believing that he did all of this himself.
14
Inflation still continues to be grossly under calculated. Those small wage gains that are barely beginning to percolate don’t even begin to account for all the rising costs that impact the average person. Insurance, education, healthcare, transportation and housing are all rising at four, five or even ten percent a year, not just two.
6
Before the Trump gloats over this accomplishment, look at the trend line. It started in 2008 and has not deviated since then. Thank you President Obama.
11
Here some numbers to look at, (https://www.statista.com)
1990-2017 the poverty rate in the United States was 11%.
Poverty rate in the United States in 2017..... 12.3%
This increase is due to underemployment. Show me the unemployment numbers based on wages meeting the cost of living. You know, affording the basic necessities that corporate America is reaping the profit from.
OH added bonus corporate America, you get a 15% tax cut.
Such a great day in djt's land of Oz.
12
Nope, Trump isn't doing anything right.....lol
Best economy in decades!,,,
6
Not for everyone.
I still help my adult son who lost his job in 2008 and has had to work multiple low paying jobs without benefits since then. Many of my friends have the same situations with their kids.
These young adults have college degrees. Some still paying for them. That large interest rate makes some corporation fat.
The picture painted by these jobs reports is falsely misleading.
It’s not reality for many non-corporate contract workers.
Nobody mentions the hideous debt that many who are bumping along the bottom have to deal with. It’s a struggle every day. Medical debt is increasing. No relief in sight there. Who wins there? Corporations. Yay.
A car repair can send them into a crisis. Getting sick? No pay. No insurance. 1099’s not covered. The hole gets deeper.
You just go on and celebrate. It’s a “thing” being selfish and gloating these days, taking credit for things you had nothing to do with.
5
HAHA! "Eight years of job gains"
Please - This is ALL President Trump.
Simple as that.
NYT - How about credit where it's due just ONCE (and i mean once as in the FIRST TIME EVER)?
Is that too much to expect from the FAKE NEWS?
you bet
5
Great news and from the comments I’ve read, it’s being celebrated with a good liberal whine!!
3
Trump's economic policy should kick in soon. Only then will we see the numbers turn around and only then will we see the true picture.
4
@DSS This IS Trump's economic policy. It certainly is not Obama's
And how high is the homeless rate since 1969?
4
Thank you President Obama and Rep Pelosi!
7
Every time journalists report on job growth, I want to scream.
These numbers don’t account for people who have dropped out of the job market, or for part time or underpaid contract work.
Sure, you’ll discuss some of these details in the body of the article, accompanied by empty questions. “Where is the wage growth?”
Homeless encampments are growing in our city underpasses and parks. Economic insecurity is fueling a rise in nationalism. But still you lede articles with reports on meaningless job numbers. You should be ashamed of yourselves.
22
It clearly speaks to wrong focus by the news media. Article # 5 on the NYT website is advising unemployment at lowest level in 49 years. Give your head a shake. As James Carville, a Democrat advised years ago “it is the economy, stupid”
1
@Last Stand Maybe, but it may help to check what "the economy" means to underpaid women, working couples without the resources to buy a home, etc. It's great to have a job, but that job should help you develop a sense of happiness, not simply a life one step ahead of the sheriff or the repo man.
4
Thanks, Obama
6
Another fake news created by China because China wishes Trump will be good for China to be president. Trade war with China helped Chinese people worked harder and make China first and better. As a Chinese I wish to thank President Trump for his helping hand. Lower unemployment also help China's economy. Shall I also thank President Obama for his contributions? Trump is really a smart guy! I hope he will be a president without tern limits just like members of Congress.
2
Great!
Noe Google the suicidal rate.
5
Bad news for democrats and the main stream media lapdogs. The country and the President must fail for them to regain power. Look for the democrats to continue their attempt at sabotaging our beloved country and its leader Donald J. Trump.
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@Steve It appears that "our beloved leader" has been robbing the US Treasury by avoiding payment of his taxes for decades. That's REAL sabotage.
1
This is wrong. 22 big retailers have or have plans to close since Trump from KMart to Toyrus. Carriers has move most operation overseas as Harley Davidson prepares to move. Ford closing all cars made in the US except the Focus crossover by 2020. Verizon to lay off 44,000 workers with AT&T afterwards. Verizon and AT&T moving jobs to India.
I think Trump and friends will lie to make him look good.
9
I appreciate this article’s honesty
"The unemployment rate fell to a nearly five-decade low in September, punctuating a remarkable rebound in the 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a global financial crisis."
Never mind the fact that the so-called unemployment rate doesn't take into account all those unemployed Americans who have simply given up looking for work.
As Disraeli said: "There are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies and statistics.". Anything to appear to keep winning as we slouch into unrecoverable debt levels, jingoism and very possibly fascism if Dems don't take the House back in November.
5
Finally, a headline that rightfully acknowledges President Obama's steady dedication to saving the nation's economy from the 2007 Republican Great Recession.
Thank you, President Obama.
15
Bring on those minimum wage, no benefit jobs! Keep working 2 or 3 part-time jobs with fluctuating hours and no consistency of a schedule. That's our "low employment" scenario. I know very few (actually, no one) who has gotten a decent raise this year (a one time bonus to look good after the tax scam doesn't count). But keep those stock buybacks coming and keep those wages low!
21
A “nearly five-decade low.”
What was the reason for that again? Contrary to what most people seem to have concluded in high school, historical context matters.
Our nation’s ability to tell itself the truth is remarkably poor. Maybe we need more movies romanticizing World War II...
4
Canadian, Singaporean, Australian, European, UK job rates are also falling. All these countries have growing exports. None off them have cut taxes. Singapore is thinking of increasing taxes. Trump and his policies have little to do with the US economy. On the contrary the US economy is doing well in spite of Trump.
6
you mean jobless numbers, but yes, we agree
President Trump has added another point of credit by his tariff on trade that generated jobs. Good score on bringing North Korea at negotiating table and now an undeniable score on employment generation. Indeed, the face of President Trump is different from the tycoon Trump. As a real estate tycoon, Mr.Trump might be capable of converting the volley of criticism by media against him into constructive criticism. If every predecessor will be made better by his successor,the days for Trump's successor or his success to continue for second term isn't far off.
@N.R.JOTHI NARAYANAN Since Bush 43, we've been on a downhills slope, economically. The Bushes, Clintons and Obamas are globalists who have been literally giving away the country; allowing our manufacturing to be sent to other countries and good paying jobs along with it. What are we left with? Jobs that pay so little they require gov't assistance. Obama famously said that the jobs were not coming back...so apparently he didn't even try; but that was never the plan. Trump refuses to let US be taken advantage of any longer and has stopped the world from using us as its piggy bank.
@Thomas Thanks. To me,your reply is the true picture. I could read Mr.Trump's statement highlighting the last sentence of your reply in his recent address to NATO allies.
The head political executive in the country, the president of the United States, has very little direct impact on job numbers. That said, Donald Trump, elected members of his party, and his followers in the citizenry will doubtless make the error of associating these data with his presidency.
Look at the graph of unemployment included in this article. Look at the drop in unemployment beginning in 2010. If you’re going to follow through on the logic that the president has a large impact on these job numbers, you’d at least have to admit that Barack Obama was the driver of this historic low, not the guy who took office less than 2 years ago when unemployment was already low. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump supporters to think that one through.
10
I am happy that there is a booming economy. But was and is almost never talked about is it takes years for an economy to recover from a downtown as was experienced in 2007 and 2008.
In my poor opinion it was POTUS Obama who did the hard work to effectively see what is happening now.
I clearly remember what happened back then and it was grim. Now we have some claiming to be the reason for this economy. But we have a so called Tax roll back that will expire in a few years but the tax cuts were permanent for big business. That's not to say i will take anything from the government I believe I am entitled to.
The greatest beneficiaries of the tax cuts are not most of us but the top 10v% of our population at the cost of the country's debt increasing by approximately 10% or over 1.25 trillion dollars. That puts our at approximately 20 trillion or almost half on the Gross National Product.
Does this make sense? Then there are the other things including a weakening of EPA standards and guidelines Consumer Protections Healthcare and more.
Does anyone feel we are in trouble besides me?
15
Several comments suggest many people may not know this:
"Wage growth" figures are adjusted for inflation.
Nope. The 2.8% year over year wage growth figure is not inflation adjusted. Go to the BLS website and review how the survey data is collected and reported. Many economists have remarked how wage growth has barely kept pace with inflation since the 1970s for lower and middle income earners. Only high income earners have done well over the past half century.
12
Everyone I talk to is waiting for the billionaires to crash the economy again.
10
Maybe it was Obama's job Czar Former GE CEO Jeff Immelt who fixed it. He could not run GE but he crested all these jobs.
1
Thank you, President Trump.
12
@MDB: You mean, thank you President Obama.
6
Will you please start talking about jobs as how many are full time with benefits - these stats are rigged. The USA is and has been dying.
17
A low paying job is better than a better paying job that doesn’t exist or that has moved off shore because US workers don’t justify the impact on profits.
4
@P Wilkinson;
If the USA is dying, then why is Latin America breaking down our borders to escape from Mexico.
On the contrary, America has strong roots and passionate and vibrant, educated citizens.
3
I'm not sure this argument helps the case for profit centric economic policy. shareholders are often non American, and income inequality is a source of a large number of problems, many of them affecting safety and life. you need a balanced pay scheme lest you deplete national stability. not trying to be a socialist, but we should consider consumption mechanics. good thing there are models but we should listen up and look out for writings on the wall.
2
Thank you, President Trump.
7
THANKS, Obama! Let's hope Trump doesn't ruin it.
20
These numbers are the so called final straw. We nee get the Democrats back in office.
4
Ben don’t think outside the confines of the 1950’s labor indicators or anything. Wouldn’t want Times reporting to accurately reflect stagnate wages or stupid low wage jobs. We wouldn’t want to save some trees by saying “Kavanaugh in. Collins didn’t think about it for two seconds.”
4
I'm happy people are employed thanks to Obama however, they are not making enough money to stem the flow of inflation.
10
@CS FYI, wage-growth numbers are adjusted for inflation.
Yeah. Back in 1968 we had many of those who would be employed by civilian employers, sitting in OD Green, and in VN.
1
I seem to remember that in 1969 there were a whole bunch of folks who were employed in a small little endeavor. Some of you might remember it it was called the viet bam war and then there was the space race and a military industrial complex that was going full time. ...... just a tad bit different time. And Walmart and amazon either didn’t exist or were in the founder of the companies minds. So it’s kinda like comparing apples to alligators
2
These statistics are meaningless and not a good way to assess the economy. Wages are stagnant and have been for the last 30 years. The minimum wage has crept forward at a glacial pace AND far more adults (not teens) are working minimum wage to support families. For most Americans, it's been a long, slow decline. Hey - just heard Amazon is opening a factory in my city at $15/hr! So I can choose to work 50 hours a week at a "professional" and salaried job that wears me out mentally … where I might make $20/hr as a teacher or bureaucrat - or maybe go to Amazon - where we all work one day, anyhow - and physically exhaust myself as a human robot for $15/hr. Pretty good wages, unless you consider I have two masters' degrees and 35 years experience. Great set of choices.
27
@Jean Campbell "Wages are stagnant and have been for the last 30 years."
FYI, wage-growth numbers are adjusted for inflation.
2
@MyThreeCents
According to data published by the Pew Research Center, she is correct.
@MyThreeCents - I don't know how that is possible when the minimum wage hasn't changed (increased) in years while inflation never takes a break.
1
How many times does the left need to be proved wrong before they admit it: lower taxes -- especially on businesses and success -- less government, fewer unskilled immigrants, etc. produce prosperity. it worked under Reagan. It worked under Clinton. It's working under Trump. Time to declare the debate over: conservatives have, yet again, proved that freedom works ever time it's tried.
But this is no time to rest on our laurels. We need immigration reform to end unskilled immigration entirely. (If you're a poor American, especially a "minority", you should be voting Republican, as voting for a progressive is economic suicide.) We need to eliminate corporate and death taxes entirely, and reduce taxes on success. With prosperity, we can significantly cut spending on unnecessary welfare programs. Move with significant health insurance reform, boosting the value of HSAs, requiring price disclosure (a governmental mandate that makes sense!!), encourage individual purchase of policies rather than through work (ala Switzerland), etc.
We KNOW what works; we saw, under BHO, with the worst 8 year growth in American history -- not one year over 3% -- what doesn't.
It's funny, the leftist comments doing their best to find shadows and caveats. They're not wholly wrong. Too many people are not working. But with increasing wages which attend labor shortages, and less competition as we send illegals home and shut the door on new arrivals, these omitted Americans will be included, too.
6
@Michael
Yes, it worked for Reagan too: cut taxes and increase deficit spending! Reagan stole 2 trillion from the Social Security fund to pay for his cuts. Trump's first year will increase the deficit by 20%. The Republican leadership is already talking about cutting Social Security and Medicare to ease the deficit.
21
Shadowstats - using 1980's metrics - has unemployment at over 20%, little changed from 2008. So many have simply given up on finding work and are no longer counted. Others are working at whatever they could find and are earning far less than they were a decade ago. The official numbers mean nothing. Inflation is vastly higher than reported and GDP far lower.
We have a race to the bottom pursuing the lowest possible labor costs, cutting benefits to a minimum. So many people are living check to check - or not even that. Jobs are shipped overseas or cheap labor is brought in (illegal or H1B) when jobs can't be relocated. Even the 'well paid' are expected to work 60-80 hours a week, be on call 24/7 and never take their vacation. They'd better save like mad because they get laid off at 50.
Nearly everyone is an indentured servant or serf in this economy while a very few become wealthier and wealthier - unable to spend all they make.
I've just seen a long standing and very profitable company with well paid workers bought out. The new owners fired all its old staff and hired new people at a fraction of old rates (and brought sales down to lows not seen in decades). The old owner believed in sharing success. They ad a staff that cared and worked hard - that made the company a success.
The new owners are out to maximize their profits and killed the goose laying the golden eggs.
15
The jobs report means nothing anymore. I'm not unemployed. My brother isn't unemployed. We both hold creative jobs at huge corporations. We don't have health insurance, sick days, vacation days, holidays or 401ks, even though we work full-time.
If we get seriously ill, we will hit financial catastrophe because we don't enjoy the same rights as full-time employees.
If the corporation needs to cut costs, we, as contractors, will be the first to go.
Corporations can't treating workers as expendable and temporary to raise their own bottom lines.
At some point, the increasing number of struggling contract workers and essentially stagnant wages of full-timers will cause an implosion in this so-called excellent economy.
42
Amazon raises pay rates and you get all excited? Please! The stock market it up because the wealthy and the corporations got a fantastic tax cut! Most stock is in the hand of the wealthy.
From NPR: "But there's something jarring about Trump's stock market talk as he promises his commitment to the middle class and laments the poverty level: Those stock market gains will overwhelmingly benefit the richest Americans. Indeed, nearly all of the stock ownership in the U.S. is concentrated among the richest. According to Wolff's data, the top 20 percent of Americans owned 92 percent of the stocks."
"Job Gains" are a totally meaningless measure of economic happiness in the United States.
9
@Frank
Economic data don't measure happiness -- they measure changes in economic variables only.
5
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was an age of low unemployment; it was an epoch of low wage growth. It was an unusual 8 years of improving employment numbers starting to raise workers’ salaries; it was an awfully tight labor market that would result in un-affordable wage increases. Low inflation was a boon to retirees; low interest rates hurt retiree savings. The richest of companies were offering $15 / hour minimum wages; the actual minimum wage had not been changed since 2009 and stood at $7.25/ hour. It was another optimistic jobs report; it was another time for Trump to take credit for things he had no real impact upon.
14
In 1969, the US had approximately 550,000 troops in Viet Nam, and about 300,000 in the US training or engaged in other service locations, eg South Korea, for example. Not surprisingly,with at least 850,000 able bodied men between 18-24 unavailable, the US labor pool was tight in1969, p
I don’t think that 1969 is the best starting
point for measuring the unemployment rate because it was artificially low.
4
Thanks Obama!
Man, that Obama guy came into office at the start of '09 and within a year got the unemployment rate to start going down, and down, and down. (I heard a rumor that Obama is a Keynesian.) The new guy hasn't even been able to mess it up.
17
In the late 1960's my low pay scale was able to pay my rent, buy my food and still allow me to put some savings into the bank each week. It was minimum wage but it worked.
I had a unskilled factory job doing assembly. Anybody could have done the work I was doing. but a lot of people were doing fine in life doing similar jobs and yet they were able to still get ahead if they watched their money and saved.
This is an impossibility now, so unemployment figures mean nothing as to people being able to earn enough money to handle their basic needs. Many of them are working two jobs to make ends meet.
This leads to a breakdown in quality of life. When quality of life goes down, crime rises. Exhausted parents have no time for raising their children properly or spending time with them.
I believe an attitude begins to develop in people and I'm serious when I say this. When people are not given the opportunity to make a decent living and work as hard as they can, but barely manage to scrape by, they begin to give up.
Many of them begin to think: Society doesn't care and holds me down with their low paying jobs. Why should I care about society?
This is a dangerous place for a mind-set of a people to be in.
Many of them will begin to take shortcuts in everything. From being honest in the workplace to treating others honestly.
Societies that allow their average workers to make a decent living have less crime, less drug use and less people in prison.
35
NY Times: Please quit printing these articles on the current unemployment rate without explaining what it means in real terms to the entire American work force and their families. That would include people who've given up looking for jobs, the more than 40% who subsist on income levels forcing them to choose among utilities, food or medicine on any given month, and the estimated 70% of American households one paycheck away from being unable to cover their monthly costs for food, shelter, health care and transportation. Then explain how paying for the recent tax break for wealthiest 1% of Americans underlies the Republican rationale for taking away what remains of this country's safety net for the majority, including Social Security and Medicare.
22
Uh-huh. And what is the REAL unemployment rate (taking into account those that have exhausted their benefits and those that have left the workforce due to poor job prospects)? Moreover, how many people are living hand to mouth in the "gig economy" that used to have relatively well paying full-time jobs?
16
Surprise! Surprise! Increased stimulus spending will get the country back to full employment faster! Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!
Where have I heard that before?
Should we reward or punish the party that blocked this stimulus during Obama's term thereby making the pain of the Great Recession last longer than it otherwise needed to? Too bad more voters do not know their macroeconomics.
-Austerity budgets when the country is deep in recession
-Gerrymandering by political affiliation
-Ignoring the rule of law to carjack the Garland nomination
-Dirty tricks that amount to Hatch Act violations if done by an executive branch member
-Backing a SCOTUS nominee whose candor, discipline and temperament are in serious doubt.
The Elephant Party is full of despicable hypocrites who apparently do not have an honest bone in their bodies.
6
I'm sorry NYT but an amalgamation of jobs across the country is meaningless.
What's needed is a map of the country showing the data that the BLS supplies but fails to show.
That way the entire country would know the state of the country and why some people are very, very angry in a supposedly great economy.
5
It’s a pity a doesn’t extend to middle-aged, female tech workers. I have been job hunting for too long to be heartened by these numbers, and when I work, it will probably be for much less money.
14
Get that, Donald? Lowest since 1969 after 8 YEARS of job gains, not your less than 2 in office. Look at that unemployment rate graph. I see the same rate of descent overall as under Obama from 2010 through 2016.
That likely means we're still seeing an Obama effect, because if anything you did was so wonderful, we would have seen a steeper decline, and little you did could possibly have affected that rate so quickly. It took 2 years to start seeing the effects of Obama's policies. So, around about now we're going to start seeing the effects of your watch.
4
At the same time, Puerto Rico (USA) remains in economic depression for over a decade, economic exodus, political colonialism and neglect
8
The unemployment rate is a misleading meaure. Those who do not find work in 6 months lose their benefits and are reclassified as "not in the labo force" which reduces the denominator and thereby underestimated unemployment. It also fails to measure underemployment with legions of people taking part time jobs with no.bwnefits and little hope for advancement leaving them to struggle to pay bills. A better measure of economic progress would take into account wages relative to the cost of living and how many American have jobs that pay above the Federal poverty line.....
21
@Max Herman I'm also curious about the number of people who have been forced into lower-paying jobs in recent years. A number of my former colleagues at a Fortune 50 telecom were laid off late last year. Almost all have found work again, but only one came close to matching her former salary. Everyone else took pay cuts of anywhere from 12-40%. Taking someone who was making $80,000 a year and moving them into a job that pays $45,000 a year is not going to grow the economy.
27
@Max Herman
U-3, the rate most widely published in mass media, is based on personal interviews designed to determine how many people are actively seeking work.
Another important indicator to follow, for all its pitfalls, is the labor force participation indicator.
@TexasTabby
I suggest consulting the Bureau of Labor Statistics web page.
If the economy is so great, I’m curious why Trump supporters feel the need to march in the streets with tiki torches and scream about blacks, Jews, gays, Mexicans etc. and physically attack them every chance they get.
17
Wow, is that happening in AZ? I am sorry to hear that. Nothing like it is happening in VA.
1
@KipThat would be liberals you're speak of
1
These job numbers are totally bogus, and everyone knows it. The trump regime has lied about everything from day one. With the number of people that stopped seeking employment added in, the real unemployment figure is more like 12-15%. And the statisticians at the labor dept. are well aware of this. Stop believing the lies people!
8
Smoke and mirrors.
How are job seekers age 50+ doing? (Crickets...)
Disenfranchised job applicants are always conveniently omitted from the myopic analyses. (Like they don't even exist!)
Try doubling the 'official unemployment rate', and you'll have a more realistic picture of this "hot job market".
24
@Kevin C. No, you just have to realistically take it for what it's worth. For evaluating any statistic, there is a wide range between tells 100% of the story and totally useless. Except in very limited contexts, no statistic tells the whole story. Like calling a baseball player who bats under .200 lousy, ignoring the fact that he averages 45 homers a year and has several golden gloves.
1
50 is almost retiring anyway....not a good benchmark.
A better job market since the dot-com years, they say. But, what types of jobs are at play in these statistics?
Most of the press about job gains and unemployment conveniently gloss ove the fact that these jobs are part-time, contract positions, temporary or low waged - it includes both blue and white collar jobs. There are ads looking for contracted lawyers, psychologists, social workers, CPAs and others with graduate degrees. While these jobs pay higher than minimum wage, they don’t pay on par with comparable permanent jobs, nor do they offer benefits or healthcare coverage. Meaning that the job gain momentum is as fragile as cotton candy and deceptive.
Better journalistic reporting is needed
12
Thank God the failing New York president has been in office for the past eight years......MAGA!
1
Best numbers in 49 years! Are you feeling the excitement?
In 1969, my father made ball bearings at United Airlines. My mom was a registered nurse working for the county. We had a very nice house in San Francisco, the kids were all heading to college, we had great vacations. Both my folks had pension plans. They felt secure and optimistic about the future for themselves and their kids.
How many people feel that way today? The numbers are the same. Maybe the numbers don't tell the story people like to think they tell?
66
@Leroy 8 years since the recovery. Things should have gotten a lot better by now, right? I submit that the biggest factor affecting that is the widening wealth disparity between, not the top and bottom rungs of the economic ladder, but the top and middle class. Essentially, the middle class is being depressed towards the poor class while the top are becoming virtual princes.
Only Presidents whose political party also controls Congress can even begin to have significant influence on the economy, especially now. After seeing what's going on in government now, after the rise of the lobbyist, we're really almost just an oligarchy with democratic tendencies.
5
@Leroy,
You are right, we were doing better back then, but a little thing happened since 1969: over 100 million new legal immigrants and 40 million illegal immigrants, jobs fleeing the country, so something had to give, and unfortunately it was our quality of life.
"The relatively mild 1969 recession followed a lengthy expansion. At the end of the expansion, inflation was rising"
Interesting the year in the headline, "1969". And that recession was followed by another in 1973. One never knows.....
1
I want to see some hard numbers on how many non-disabled adults in this country have been removed from the roles of workers because they are considered hardcore unemployable...and also some numbers on disabled people who could work but are unable to find accommodating appointment. Fully understanding the definition of who gets to be called a worker in this report would be interesting. Probably also depressing, and not the numbers the administration in power wants us to see.
11
@rbyteme That's right, rbyteme. In '69 a large number of people had been removed from the labor pool by being drafted. Today many have been removed for the reasons you mentioned, as well as those who gave up looking for work.
4
With characteristic immodesty, Trump is taking credit for the eight years of jobs growth and recovery before he arrived to soil the scene in Washington.
8
Junk news. What jobs do if they pay nothing. Provide no security, lots of temp positions. Jobs today, no jobs comes next year because it's so easy for employers these days to go trans-national. No security, no safety net, can't make big purchase like a house, can't start a family because who knows what happens next year. Only the 1% are winning.
24
"Friday’s report should ease those fears because the jobless rate fell sharply without bringing a sharp rise in wage growth. That suggests employers are still finding the workers they need."
So let me get this right.
Our economy, no matter who is in charge, is set to consider it a crisis any time low to medium wage workers begin to show even hazy and distant signs of gaining on the corporate and the very rich?
It looks more and more like revolution time to me; more and more like our business heroes, our politicians, our judges, and our social scientists all find their greatest comfort in keeping workers very poor, and lying about it.
That pretty much it?
Profit is more important than human life? Yeah?
21
Liberals just can't help themselves. "With 8 years of job gains", huh?
Obama spent 8 years blaming Bush for his administrations lousy record--but now he wants to claim credit for every good thing that has happened after he's no longer in office?
8
@Jesse The Conservative Not everything. Just the economy and any laws he passed that haven't been voided by Trump through executive action. The U.S. economy is huge and gains/losses take a long time to trend up or down. So, yeah, thanks Obama.
6
Why is it that EVERYONE must be labeled "liberal" or "conservative"?
There is no middle ground!!
Can't people just be LOGICAL and/or PRAGMATIC?
1
@Jesse The Conservative What is it you are disputing? The facts or the arithmetic?
Jobs have been growing for eight years. See
https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001?output_view=net_1mth. Just plain facts.
It took all eight years of job growth for the unemployment rate to come down from 10% to 3.7%. Just some arithmetics.
1
Of course The Times buries the fact that the July-August jobs numbers were revised upward by 87,000, After all, why give the Trump administration any credit for a booming economy if you can spin the jobs increase as a mediocre achievement? Then again, we can't expect The Times to say anything positive about Trump and the Republican Congress. That would not go well with their handlers in the Democrat party.
6
@paul
What exactly has Trump done to help improve the economy?
11
@Lex tax reform, good judges going to the federal bench, reduction in federal employees, executive orders rescinded, regulations being controlled, trade deals renegotiated, domestic energy development supported, stronger international posture.
1
@Ambrose Rivers
Most of which are unrelated to the economy. Exactly how, for example, does reducing the work force of the Environmental Protection Agency, and allowing more pollution and environmental destruction help the economy?
2
Let us please go back to the days when every article did not include the president's thoughts on the matter. Lose the twitter feed, will you, NYT?
The presidency used to be fairly transparent. Citizens could go days without news of anything the president was doing unless they specifically looked for that information. Now this buffoon Trump has injected his ugly mug into every single public space. I swear 90% of what I read in today's media is about Trump, or one of his disasters, or vicious ad hominem attacks, or just plain verbal diarrhea. Can it please. Your readers will thank you.
8
Thanks, Obama!
10
You mean setting a clear agenda against hiring illegals and abusing the visa system has worked. I can't wait to see the democratic party's 2020 platform against this and Americans doing jobs they once claimed American's wouldn't do. If democrats thought they lost the urban votes in 2016, well keep pushing that abolish ICE platform and see how things go.
3
Umm.....your prez has gladly hired "illegals" in the past when it suits his purposes.
1
@Quincy Mass
He is your prez too. The left sounds just as ridiculous as the right when they claimed President Obama wasn't a legitimate president. Both Obama and Trump won their elections legitimately and in 2020 there is an opportunity to help vote in someone you like. Just be aware that a hate Trump campaign without a good platform will not work. Time for democrats to step up with a solid platform.
1
Be ready, Look this seems to be anymore tide like.
Around 2008. money migrated BRICS economies , America and Europe lost immense number of job.
If we are going to hit another crisis( some says 100%) tide will go again that direction.
For example Turkey economy literally lived golden years right around 2007 to 2014 , like Brazil etc. but whenever Crisi past US and Europe (for financial people) Money started to come back. Turkey is now hanging out in the cold due to 400 billion USD debt of binge. Like Greece.
So Financial people created a world hubs when some place start to sour they migrate , what remains behind is a carcass.
What is our collective weakness is We forgot what was 2008-2010 period in this country. GM bankrupted people ……….
America fall on its knees. Yes Crisis now is over but we left behind corpses , millions of them.
be cognizant what happened.
What happened to Greece.
1
An eight year recovery? Why not extend it two years back and start with the bank bailout of 2008? Didn’t that have something to do with the so-called “recovery?” Obama certainly went along with the Republicans to make it as bank-friendly as possible and with minimal pain because not a single bank exec went to jail! Then we have quantitative easing by the Fed which ensured near zero interest rates. The banks loved that, too. Another win for Obama! The wealth gap also greatly increased. I just don’t see where the average American did so well though. But maybe Obama cleverly timed it so that the average America family wouldn’t feel the effects of the recovery until after Trump took office. How nice of Obama and just another example of how hard he worked to make Trump look good without taking any of the credit for himself. He deserves the Nobel Prize in Economics for that alone. He can put it on the same shelf where his Peace Prize is collecting dust. We all know how much he deserved that one, too.
3
I'll repeat what I asked the last time the unemployment numbers were released: how many of these "new" jobs are full-time positions, with consistent hours and benefits?
Say goodbye to the middle class: we're turning into Uber Nation, desperately stringing together side hustles and hoping the roof doesn't fall in.
22
It's called the "sharing economy".....
1
At this point I would credit Trump with not immediately destroying Obama’s recovery. It’s not over though. Let’s how those tariffs and the student loan bubble play out.
9
The more important statistic is the labor market participation rate which measures the percentage of working age adults in the work place. Remember this? It was the statistic that the Republicans used to pummel the Obama economy after he pulled the USA out of the Great Recession (with zero help from those Republicans. The labor market participation rate has dropped .2% during the Trump Administration, a very nasty trend which Obama could not reverse, either. All the while the cost of housing, education and health care make them less and less accessible to more and more Americans. Labor is in crisis in the twenty-first century and the Republicans have two responses - let's eliminate the social safety net and transfer those savings plus $$$ generated by huge new federal debt to the richest of the rich. The only question that matters is, what are you doing today to support the resistance?
11
@ten organic farms what are you doing yourself, if indeed you own ten organic farms?
1
Employers around the country took advantage of the Great Recession to purge their payrolls of expensive older workers-- "the Discarded."
With experience now a disqualifying liability in the job market, the Discarded are too old to hire but too young to officially retire. But many Discarded nonetheless chose premature retirement after a protracted fruitless job search. They continue to be hit with "premature distribution" penalties for accessing their retirement funds. (The designers of retirement plans surely never imagined that plunder capitalism would one day routinely jettison people in their 50s or even 40s from the productive economy.)
Some of the Discarded found new jobs, but were laid off again after a year or two. Some languish in McJobs, while others lead a precarious existence as "consultants" or "independent contractors." None of these offer benefits, and that existence is made even more precarious as Republicans foam at the mouth to take away their health care. Still others, seeing a hopeless future, chose to stop burdening their families.
The unemployment numbers conveniently ignore the Discarded. As do elected officials, who presumably don't want to offend donors who consider age discrimination an essential practice in their tireless quest to "unlock shareholder value."
So once again I ask: How low do unemployment numbers need to get before the Discarded become eligible for real jobs with benefits?
39
@Ted as one of those employees that were “discarded” (aka “displaced”) in January I couldn’t have stated it better myself. One of the most infuriating aspects of this status is that well meaning family, friends and former co-workers continue to express bewilderment as to why I have been unable to find another position when the jobless rate is so low.
4
@Ted Well stated. It's tiresome to have multiple advanced degrees and oodles of experience when looking around for one of the "good" jobs.
2
The miopic view of unemployment stats has been discussed at length. I for one gave up looking for a job, so I do not count as unemployed. I am pretty certain that the level of unemployment is much, much higher than reported.
15
Thanks Obama. It's thoroughly deserved.
7
Everyone who wants one, without evidence, has a job....isn’t that the headline?
1
Thank you, President Obama.
7
Are the homeless counted? Are the addicts counted? Are the aimless youth counted? Let's get real on the picture of economic success.
5
@Rocky
Good point, how do you find the individuals you mentioned for interviews?
Democrats are so warped that they can't even acknowledge the economic strength under Trump. They's much rather go back to recession conditions under Obama than deal with reality. They will vote to undermine the economy and get people back where they want them - on the welfare rolls.
3
@TL
How about you explain to us what exactly Trump has done to strengthen the economy?
2
@TL are you referring to recession conditions that the republicans created?
8 Years, it was definitely Mr. Trump, yeah of course, no doubt.
7
So the recovery in employment that started exactly when Republicans took control of congress in 2010, continues unabated.
And faster wage raises, that started when President Trump won the election, continues also.
Put the two together and we have the best time for works in half a century!!!
Can we please not mess this up by giving even one branch of government back to the Democrats?
@Baron95
Wowww , We won Iraq war too, even Vietnam too.
What else ummm …………………...
4
With unemployment so low, we don't have enough workers for important jobs. The answer is obvious: We need more immigrants! We need to encourage immigration.
5
We need a more revealing statistic to describe economic growth than just employment. I suggest something like percent employed divided by percent increase or decrease in overall wages.
6
Thanks, Obama! Now let's raise wages and tax the rich so that everyone can have nice things. So much money sloshing around in the top 0.5% that they can't even spend it all. Time to invest in our infrastructure, schools, and sense of civic togetherness, which we desperately need.
11
Thank you, Team Obama. For the last two years of this 8-year recovery and improvement, Trump is, of course, claiming all of the credit (as if an economy this size just turns on and off like a switch) while the GOP and its sponsors are currently feasting at the trough. The riverbank is being eroded while we stand on it; we just don't know how bad it will be yet.
11
The Obama Boom continues. Job creation through Trump's first 20 months was 3.80 million (190,000/month average), only moderately lower than the 4.15 million (208,000/month average) for Obama. We've been in record territory in the total number of jobs (the figure from which the changes above are derived) since May 2014.
Not shown in this jobs report of course is the increase in the debt trajectory for the 2018-2027 period from the $9.4 trillion Trump inherited from Obama (CBO January 2018 current law baseline) to the $13.7 trillion today (CBO April 2018 current policy baseline), an increase of $4.3 trillion or 46%. Apparently, the existential threat that merited government shutdown by Republicans during the Obama era due to deficits is no longer a concern.
Nor are the 1-3 million more without health insurance causing a concern on the Republican side, on its way to about a 25% increase vs. the Obama baseline by 2026 according to CBO.
The real wage increases have also been below the Obama era, averaging around 0.3% vs. the year ago period during the Trump era vs. 0.8% during the Obama era.
When will the winning start? Or will it just be tax cuts for the rich accelerating the upward transfer of wealth, which incidentally Obama slowed with tax hikes on the top 1% that took effect in 2013?
11
The country is making more and more money, the GDP is rising & the unemployment rate is as low as it was at the end of Clinton's administration. With so much more money coming in as a ratio of GDP to workers, why are workers now earning less (after inflation & the token share of Trump's tax cuts) than they have in decades? The removal of Obama-era regulations designed to prevent the Wall Street vultures from creating another Great Recession or worse have now been removed. We are back where we were in 2007, only worse. The Stock Market has been run up so quickly that it is a highly over-valued bubble with a p/e ratio twice as high as is healthy. A new housing bubble has emerged. There is also the credit-card debt bubble, the student loan bubble, and a commercial real estate bubble. People have forgotten that the banks made an extra trillion dollars during the 2008 collapse, while the middle-class lost one-third of their net worth - seven trillion dollars. Now, we have set up the same conditions the banks used to push the country into collapse again. Hedge fund managers like John Paulson and David Tepper, who were raking in billions in 2008/9 are not making nearly as much money as the economy grows out of control (Tepper and his Appaloosa Fund made over 6.5 billion in 2009, close to 3 million AN HOUR), are no longer making sums in the billions & want the old days back . Remember what Brazil's General Medici said in 1971:
" The economy is doing fine, but the people aren't."
13
What about the millions who are not reported in unemployment statistics because they have given up on ever getting a job?
18
"With 8 Years of Job Gains, Unemployment Is Lowest Since 1969"
I was taught about the 60's and 70's. There wasn't a chapter on great jobs numbers. It was mostly about... "that other stuff."
The lesson plans outlined an era defined by those who were fighting racism/bigotry and those who were enabling it. It was the era of challenging state-sponsored discrimination in earnest no matter how states tried to spin it. It was back when the "Party of Lincoln" was still an enemy of the Confederacy and the KKK; when it had no trouble taking sides against Nazis. It was the era that showed Nixon that getting into the Oval Office was not license to say and do whatever fool thing he pleased. It was an era when there were enough vertebrates in Congress to back up that principle.
I was taught about presidents who spoke of doing things "not because they are easy, but because they are hard." Progress, not regress, was the goal. I heard legends of U.S. leaders with enough credibility to defuse missile crises and an electorate that put up a moral outcry against pointless wars. I even hear that there used to be murderous, radical LEFT-wing terrorists in the U.S. (almost unknown in my lifetime)! I heard about things called "unions" and "radical feminism"... "moonshots" and "Southern Strategies"... the "Summer of Love," "pet rocks" and the "War on Drugs."
In 2060, I wonder what questions kids will be asking my generation about the 20-teens. Jobs numbers? Or... "that other stuff"?
3
God bless President Obama.
11
Something wrong...Verizon laying off 44,000, AT&T has a big layoff in the works. Trump must be fudging numbers.
6
Don't say the same thing what trump base says , please.
No body is fudging. Do you know hao many people are employed Uber style economy. that si employment without insurance, retirement etc.
Yes some very big player are shedding jobs that si true. this is a complex situation.
we will soon see what type of joblessness we are talking.
Well, I'm happy for young people. Maybe they'll vote to increase Social Security so I won't have to die in poverty.
13
People need to stop seeing the economy as short run, and stop believing any politician who does so. The economic ups and downs have always been built upon what various entities have done in the past 2-3-4 years; the Fed, the Pres, Congress, global trends, wars,...
The 2008 debacle was created by deregulation and an overfueled economy during the Bush years. It went up too fast, then corrected a lot. Some GOP zealots tried to blame Obama, but he wasn't even Pres yet.
Whoever became Pres in 2009 (Obama, McCain, Trump, Mickey Mouse, a 3rd term of Bush) would have had the same pattern through 2010 or so.
The improving economy through most of Obama's terms would continue in the early years of the next Pres, regardless of who that Pres would be (Trump, Clinton, 3rd term of Obama, Mickey Mouse,...).
Trump inherited a growing economy, no matter how much he tries to take credit for it or how much his groupies agree with him. The economy just doesn't change that fast folks, and as the figures show, the numbers aren't improving any faster under Trump than in the several years before.
But wait until Trump's been in a few years, trade wars and more deregulation than Bush did. - When the economy goes in the other direction, Trump will be blaming someone/anyone else (maybe Obama somehow, maybe Hillary for not winning the election, maybe the FBI, maybe the media) and the Trumpifiles will just simply agree with him.
Those who don't learn from history, are doomed to repeat.
15
@Mark Miller -The full quote is "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it - but each time the price goes up."
Consider that millions of middle-class workers lost all or the major part of their retirement savings in 2008 & Trump & the GOP are planning to freeze wages for gov't employees (but not themselves) next year & cut into Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid to pay for the trillions in debt being piled up by their tax giveaways to the rich. The House even passed another $2.5 trillion in tax cuts, the overwhelming majority going to those who already have more money than their heirs could spend in the coming generations. The CBO estimates this alone will add $1.5 TRILLION to next year's deficit & the country's total debt. Trump's deficit this year is second only to the deficits run during WW II, & the Congressional Budget Office is extrapolating that next year, Trump will surpass even that deficit for the highest on record. Considering that Clinton turned GHW Bush's record deficit into three year of actual surplus, paying down our total debt, and Obama halved the annual deficit of GW Bush's final budget, I can only hope that today's workers are living as cheaply as they can & squirreling away as much money as possible against the Trump government taking away much of the Social Security workers are already paying for in their FICA withholding. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice & I'll be living in a cardboard box under a bridge.
5
@Mark Miller great analysis ... send it to a political leader with some brains and carisma and we have our next Pres
This story repeatedly mentions that wages are up 2.8% over the past year. What it fails to mention is that the inflation rate is 2.7%, meaning that real wage growth is 0.1%.
It mentions that the economy has added jobs every month for the past 8 years. Nearly 6 1/2 of those years were, of course, when Barack Obama was president and when Donald Trump claimed that unemployment numbers were fake.
While jobs have increased every month, there was one month that the streak almost ended with a feeble 16,000 gain. That was September 2017.
In the 20 interminable months of the Trump presidency, job gains surpassed 300,000 in only one month. In President Obama's second term, there were six 300,000+ new job months. So much for inheriting a mess.
The economy has been consistently growing for the past eight years. Thank you, President Obama, Ben Bernanke and Janet Yellin. And congratulations to Donald Trump, who had the good fortune of inheriting a surging economy. George W. Bush had such good luck as well. Like Trump, he also gave a big tax cut to the rich and let the deficit soar.
And we all know how that ended up.
8
I’m a registered independent who will continue to vote Democratic, so I cannot totally agree with almost any of the arguments made. I do not support Kavanaugh or the Bush-era DKE’s. I am not the women’s knight in shining white armor but I do support their Crusade here and I do know what chivalry is. Kavanaugh lacks that simple virtue, but the example we rely on is from 35 years past. Ultimately, this piece serves as evidence of how difficult it is to even write commentary on the state of politics today. Thank jeebus, that the article ends with a query.
2
@Eli Hutton
Time, not facts, blind a simple mind who pretends he's "independent,"
1
1 When wil the government stop pretending there is a difference between unearned and earned income? We cannot afford to lose are most skilled workers because of the unfair social security penalties to those who earn too much on the job. It is the experienced workers who can best train the newbies at work.
2 Businesses who in the past would have held out for skilled workers are now hiring unskilled and doing expensive in-house training. When those unskilled become skilled, when the employer is no longer paying two wages to get the benefit of one skilled worker, wages will go up.
@F.E.B. The job gains have to be quantified. How many new jobs are low-paying part-time jobs in retail, where workers often make far less than necessary to lift them over the poverty line? An old associate of mine who used to run the Software Quality Control department for a major military contractor lost his job. That's -1 in the jobs category. After years unable to find a job, he now restacks shelves in a CVS drug store overnight. +1 job. But, is this really what we want to see in the economy?
5
Lowest gains since the recession. This doesn't count part-time employees, the underemployed, and those who have given up. The real unemployment rate is growing, not declining. Many, whose wages have not increased, are being asked to do more, so the company doesn't have to hire people. Amazon raised the hourly rate, while stripping monetary benefits, and furthermore $15/hour still won't feed you, house you, pay for your health care. Once again, they will be asking employees to do more for more more money. Companies would rather import employees than train Americans. It's cheaper, if not patriotic.
9
ChesBay--I meant to say "do more for the same money." sorry.
@ChesBay Good points. To this day, Trump refuses to name the company that he claims makes his caps and trashy trinkets in the U.S. Shouldn't he be anxious to put it in our faces?
1
I don’t understand where they get these statistics, when not even temp agencies have jobs these days, except for warehouse work. Feels like an alternate reality, with headlines cheering the great economy, and dogfights about which pol deserves the credit for it, while people can’t get work and are barely getting by.
12
The unemployment rate of 3.7% of today or under 4% of late could have been achieved years ago, well before president Obama's term ended, had it not been for perennial obstructions set by the Republicans.
They wanted the economy not improve under Obama.
If the stimulus were far larger, with infrastructure improvement, with repair and development of a nationwide high-speed rail system, etc., when the interest rate was so low and little chance of high inflation, the unemployment rate would be under 4% or close to 3% several years ago.
3
The Economy is humming right along for the Billionaire/CEO class. For everyone else, not so much. Where is the infrastructure spending they promised? Everything this government has done since the get-go has been pro-business, often at the expense of the worker and the greater good. The relaxation of environmental regulations is especially heinous. Do the Koch Bros. think they won't have to breathe the same air or drink the same water as the rest of us?
21
How the devil did Trump do it? Shows what we know.
1
There is nothing wrong with this country that a sustained, calamitous drop in the Dow Jones average cannot begin to repair.
Market Summary > Dow Jones Industrial Average
INDEXDJX: .DJI
26,361.55 −265.93 (1.00%)
1
This is all because of Donald Trump, Francis Crozier, and James Fitzjames
I find it hard to believe this statistics. Something is not right here. I live in Chicago and know some people who have had the hardest time to find a job. Yes, the minimum wage jobs are out there waiting for you. But those that pay a living wage are not easy to find at all. I'm confused.
9
@atk
Someone who has not been able to get a job in the current economy is looked at more suspiciously then just a few years ago. Many jobs require expensive training.
In both of those cases, it is scary to take an expensive chance on an employee who may not work out.
A starting low wage is essential for both situations.
An inexpensive "test run", makes sure the job is compatible with the personalities of both employer and employee.
A willingness to start low helps one to end high.
Starting low, an apprenticeship, is cheaper than college & frequently more effective.
@atk - People who used to have a job that paid a living wage that allowed them to feed, house, clothe, & educate their children are now forced to take multiple minimum-wage jobs & still live below the poverty level. One good job lost, three underpaid part-time jobs gained. During a Bush townhall during the Great Recession, Bush talked to one woman who proclaiimed she was working 3 jobs to keep food on the table. The clueless Bush praised her on her enterprise and initiative, entirely missing the tragic point she was making. We are being ruled by people who were born into luxury and privilege and whose prime directive is to protect and continue enriching their elite class by shearing the sheep, while keeping the sheep from noticing by stoking fear and hatred against each other among their victims. When workers were demanding an end to sweatshop conditions and poverty wages and the creation of unions in the 1880s under that century's robber barons, Jay Gould, who owned the Erie Railroad just laughed and said, "I can pay half the working class to kill the other half." We have come back to that.
6
I read many comments that credit Obama's policies for this record economy, since it takes years to see effect.
I have a question for the readers that think that - at what point will you give president Trump credit for good economy? In 4,6 years? Does that mean that recovery after 2008 crash should be credited to junior Bush?
4
Herbert Williams--Given the lag, he will get credit just about the time he runs for reelection, which he will if Kavanaugh is confirmed. We'll be having a deep recession within 2 years, so don't expect it. Democrats always rescue the country from Republican economic failures. (Course, MOST OF THEM will get richer, no matter what happens. It's only the bottom 60% that suffers from Republican policies.)
1
@Herbert Williams A president's affect on the US economy can only be gauged once their term is up. After 8 years of Clinton, the economy was great. After eight years of Bush, the economy was terrible, after 8 years of Obama, the economy was good again, and has continued to improve since. It remains to be see what the economy will be like in 2020 or 2024. Stay tuned.
6
@Herbert Williams What you Trump 95% (ers) refuse to grasp is that Trump inherited an economy on the upswing and he happens to be president during this temporary good news. Attributing credit to Obama, Bush or Clinton is subjective. The facts dictate the American economy rises or falls based on the global economy.
3
With unemployment at a 50-year low, just why are we building a wall to keep immigrants out when we desperately need those willing to risk their lives to get here and work hard? We should be opening the "golden door" rather than barricading it. After all, it was immigrants who made America great in the first place.
3
@Paul Wortman
From the beginning, Trump has wanted a wall with "a big door."
If you own a rental house, you want renters, not squatters.
Likewise, we want legal immigrants, who are not afraid to ask for police protection, not illegal immigrants who are too easily abused, and abuse back---too often in self-defense.
1
@F.E.B.
What big door? He is cutting legal immigration too.
@Paul Wortman - because, low unemployment has resulted in Americans refusing to take the lowest-paying stoop-labor jobs that agriculture needs to keep from failing. Devon Nunes (R-CA), for example, goes to great lengths to hide the fact that his family sold their cattle farm in Tulare, CA well over a decade ago and bought a farm in Sibley, Iowa. With some of the proceeds, they bought a small, botique farm in Tulare, run by Nunes's uncle so that Nunes can claim CA residency. But his wife, sibliings, parents et al. live on the farm in Sibley. A reporter recently went to Sibley to interview farmers, workers, reporters, the sheriff, and the mayor. They universally admitted that virtually all of the agricultural workers in north-west Iowa are undocumented immigrants and all live in fear that ICE will make an appearance in Sibley, including the Nunes farm, NuStar Farm, LLC, and destroy the local economy by deporting the thousands of undocumented workers who do all the labor on the farms (including NuStar). Interestingly, when the Esquire reporter, Ryan Lizza, was asking around the town, he was constantly being followed by one of two white Chevy Yukons. He put a gopro camera in his car & recorded them circling the block, waiting for him every time he went into a diner, city hall, or the sheriff's department. He identified both drivers as Nunes's brother & sister-in-law. The fact Sibley is in virulent anti-immigrant Rep. Steve King's district might explain why ICE has avoided Sibley.
4
We need to stop perpetuating the myth there are lots of idle people on the sidelines waiting for the right time to jump in. They do not exist. Has anyone taken a look at the potential workers currently in middle school/high school, lets say, for the next 3 to 5 years? The declines began 2 years ago and accelerate for the next 8 years. Remember the US employers whining about the unskilled workforce, paying the lowest wages for American workers? Things are about to change, quickly.
Regardless of whether it's "structural" or "cyclical" unemployment, there are still many of us (educated, w/ master's degree) on the "sidelines" waiting for an opportunity. And I'm starting to be more than flexible with salary, career focus, etc. Not yet 50, either.
6
@mark
Flexibility---resilience---is the secret to survival.
Welcome to the world of survivors.
Retired workforce administrator here, and sooner than later, the shrinking labor participation and fewer degree holders will be like a runaway train over employers; thinking only in the short term, they ignore that there are no potential American workers to speak of in the pipeline. Families have spun off fewer children by nearly 40% during the last 30 years, and immigrants are slowing to a trickle. Soon you should have many opportunities with your exp and edu.
So the Republicans want to kill the ACA and Medicaid. They haven't done much on infrastructure. But millionaires and banks are doing quite well. But wages went up 8 cents an hour. Storms are getting worse. Droughts more prolonged. The Koch Brothers are doing just fine. They funded an anti tax effort to defeat a bond issue to improve the terrible traffic situation in Nashville. Schools have been practically defunded in R. states by anti tax zealots. Reactionary special interests are the brains behind Trump's governance. But the 1000s of dollars in pay raises Trump and the Rs. promised in their tax cuts have taken a back seat to make sure Trump, Corker and Jaime Diamond gets theirs.
6
But why is it still so hard to even get an interview? Try to apply in person, they say apply online or email a resume. Apply online and see your application disappear into the resume black hole. Even relevant degrees aren’t good enough for most jobs. They still require several years of specific experience in the exact position, which is why you see so many jobs open for years. Why do so many job seekers’ actual experience diverge so heavily from the data?
14
@Huh Exactly, We're told that there's 2.5% unemployment in the Twin Cities yet I went to a job fair in suburban Minneapolis yesterday and there were hundreds of middle aged people there.
5
@PaulC
How many of those middle age people were not looking for a job, but instead for a better job?
Next time you apply for work, send a pre-letter saying you admire the company, ASK what skills they most admire, need, appreciate.
Have a brief paragraph added to the top of your printed resume showing you have the personality traits they most enjoy working with, and you are looking forward to learning FROM them.
Yes, it is brown-nosing 101, but guess what, it is smart brown nosing. If you are not humble before you are hired, it will be feared you will be the arrogant jerk no one can stand, but is too hard to ditch.
Be humbly self-confident.
Wow, what great news. So, I guess this means that undocumented immigrants don't have to leave the country because there are enough jobs for everyone, right?
21
Immigration reform and law should be debated and decided according to democratic principles, not according to business owners who would like to find more affordable help.
2
No that is not correct. And I am a US citizen in case you wondered.
1
Trump can't legitimately claim responsibility. He made his fame firing people.
@Shakinspear
The right person fired allows the potential great ones to stop whining, suffering from one person's negativity, and start shining.
Like pulling weeds in a garden.
Meaningless!
Wages remain historically low.
Enough with this meaningless stat!
Insults people's intelligence.
Look at the number of jobs that pay a living wage today and compare it to the those that paid a living wage in 1971.
Then look at the number of those jobs in 1971 in proportion to the population eligible to work them. Now look at the number of living wage jobs today and the population of the eligible work force. The answer arrived at will demonstrate what a joke the unemployment rate is today.
That would be news that's fit to print.
15
Excellent! Again a triumph for President Donald J. Trump. The Radical Left can't stand it because these numbers show that capitalism, when unleashed from suffocating taxes and regulations, works. The RL wants capitalism to fail so it can push its Marxist-Leninist-Maoist agenda of giving away this and giving away that. Haven't they been told that there is no lunch? Another article from CNSNEWS.COM reported that Trump slashed 1,000 federal jobs in September and a total of 16,000 since taking office. As promised he is draining the swamp! This is why Americans elected Donald J. Trump to be the President of the United States of America, why he won, why he defeated HRC. I support the President. I support Trump. Thank you.
5
Don’t forget that Donald Trump was elected with the critical support of American neo-Nazis, the “alt-right”, the Klan, the white-power hoodlums (not to mention Putin, according to all US intelligence agencies). That’s really how he was elected; surfing on Obama’s economic wave is just a benefit he inherited.
Thanks, Obama.
8
These numbers can be a bit misleading. Please note how the government changed the definition of "employment" over the years. This 3,7% number doesn't include only full time workers, but part time workers as well. It also includes "people actively looking for a job" so the true picture is quite blurry, and probably much less optimistic.
Also, the wage growth in USA is ridiculous compared to the inflation. The dollar isn't buying a lot of stuff anymore. The economic numbers look good on paper, but that's not what you see in the streets.
10
If you'll forgive the expression, "Fake News!" The supposed unemployment rate does not include the many people who desperately want work, but can not find it where they live (despite the tight market nationally), and are no longer counted, because, after so long, they are less actively looking for work that is not to be found.
10
If it wasn’t for climate change all would be rosy. But floods and crushing snow storms will eventually show that deregulation and unbridled growth are unsustainable. But let’s not worry about that today! These Are the good old days after all.
3
Clearly, this is all Trump's fault. Ill-advised tax policies. Reduced regulations, Lower corporate tax rates. Remember in November to vote for a return to the good old days.
10
@Incredulous, of course, I am not sure how sarcastic you are being but any objective person who reviews the charts, tables and numbers can reach one conclusion: we have been since 2010 in a recovery that has more or less created jobs at a consistent rate since then. It started under Obama and has continued under Trump. These are the facts. You can apportion credit or blame anyway you want but the information provided in those charts, etc. leads to that one conclusion only.
9
@Incredulous
You really are incredulous to not realize that if it wasn't for POTUS Obama, we'd all still be unemployed and mired in the great recession.
Month to month changes are full of statistical noise but on a 3 month moving average basis, there may be the beginnings of a slowdown in manufacturing, impacted primarily by steel and aluminum tariffs.
The 3 month average for manufacturing job gains is about 18,300, compared to an average monthly gain of 22,600 jobs since the manufacturing recovery began back in 2010, a 20% slowdown.
The 33% rise in domestic steel prices to manufacturing customers may have the same impact that W Bush's steel tariffs back in 2002, when 200,000 jobs were lost.
Trump might be killing the very manufacturing recovery he tries to stimulate with his tax giveaways and tariffs.
Oh well, whatever happens, at least those free trade global elitist investors are getting their dividends and stock buybacks, as manufacturing invests in automation and moves to free trade countries.
4
The Obama Administration is largely responsible for the continued upturn in the economy, and resulting low unemployment statistics.
This fool as done nothing positive to effect our country's progress.
Republicans who know anything about economics should realize it takes several years before current unfortuate policy decisions will effect labor conditions.
5
@Carole
Excellent point - using that logic, you should give credit to junior Bush for the recovery after 2008 crash.
6
The claims by our Extraordinary Lying President Trump compare to a relay race final lap winner, who claims that it was HIS run to the finish line in the last lap, that proves that HE is the winner!
The track to our humming economy was clearly started by President Obama! If Obama was able to remain, we would have this great economic news, but without children in concentration camps.
Trump's proven consistancy is in lying and distorting!
3
@Wilson Woods
Are you aware those "concentration camps" started over 20 years ago?
About time they were noticed, but those children in camps existed during the entire Obama administration, and Bush's, and started in Clinton's.
@F.E.B.
I did not know about the Bush and Obama administration' policies of holding children which is necessary for illegal immigrants.
But I am sure it did not include separating them from their parents, bringing 4 yr old kids into courtrooms, ALONE, to face deportation hearings, and losing track of their locations and the parents' location!
Of course Obama years were the worst, Trump save the economy.
I am just reiterating daily worship of average MAGA base.
1
So briefly, the decentish jobs picture continues to scroll along, at least if you look at things in the traditional fashion. But wage growth is pretty much where it’s been for years, there’s no real evidence of serious investment in new plants (well, except for car plants built by them furriners we keep yelling at), our infrastructure remains somewhere below pathetic (have you BEEN in Rotterdam?), the deficit is booming, we’re running up even bigger environmental and political deficits, the gig economy groweth apace...
I’d comment further, but I’ve grown tired of seeing that Trumpists can’t recognize an up-slope, let alone what the top numbers are on a graph.
Enjoyed the ‘winger who argued that the Times was picking on Trump by looking at longer-term trends and...and...throwing them pesky facts around.
2
@Robert
Do you think newly hired people should be paid as much as the experienced co-worker?
Most experienced co-workers would say "No way!"
Right. But... what about France, Spain, Italy, Belgium? Be happy that your country is doing quite well and about to leave the sinking ship.
2
Outside the financial hub that is NYC (hub where a lot of the 1%'ers live) the economy is not all that great. I moved from NYC a year ago because I couldn't afford it anymore and to go back for my masters degree. I apply for jobs everyday but nothing. Employers got spoiled during the past 20 yrs., they want the perfect candidate for the lowest possible price, and they know if they hold out for long enough they will get it. Younger workers are prized for their naivete.
The workforce participation is still at an all time low, I'm in those numbers. The older workers lost so much in the shenanigans they cannot afford to retire and thus make room for mid-to-upper level 40 somethings. There is a portion of the population that has become disenchanted with the workforce.
A LOT of us are still out in the cold.
13
@Charles
Why would you have chosen Pensacola, of all places?
2
@Charles that's the statistic we need: "workforce participation"
also - "Purchasing Power" who cares about wages?
- if "wages" are up and "Purchasing Power" is down - workers are not doing well.
2
@Charles
When I was child in the 50's and 60's my parents moved multiple times to go where the work was.
If you are smart enough to get a masters in an employment useful field, you should be smart enough to figure out where the jobs are. Or to create your own job, become self-employed and eventually an employer.
If there is no way to turn your skills into an income, if money was your motivation for an education, you were gypped. Because if you cannot do so, neither can anyone else.
Learning is fun, but do not expect educational fun to automatically be financially rewarding as well.
Sure. Anybody can get a low wage part time job. Poverty continues to rise.
14
@Zejee
If you get a job with a small business, part-time work is the best route to full time work.
And how many of those "jobs" pay so well you can drop out of high school, get married, buy a house, own two cars, and raise a family with a stay-at-home wife (and live a long life only to resent the up and coming and vote republican as an angry, selfish old American) like JOBS DID IN 1969?
8
"The demand for workers is higher than ever and the supply just isn't out there right now, Ms. Glaser said."
Please don't tell the open border Democrats and the low wage promoting business people know this; we then get a glut of Democrats whining for more immigration.
Let us please have a little less discord in this country and try to help the little guy get a decent paying job, for a change; no more open spigots for immigration to knock out the little guys who have no advocates, please.
10
@JRS, I have never known any Democrat to say they want "open borders". I do hear business people who say our good economy will suffer if we do not have more immigrants because our working age population is insufficient for all those jobs but these businessmen, I suspect, range from Democrats to Republicans to independents. Most Democrats do not support "open borders' but we do support a pragmatic system that is not a waste of taxpayer money. None of the GOP Republican congressmen in border districts think the wall is a good idea. It's a sham that would be costly but it appeals to people's idea that something is being done when it is not.
@JRS
like anyone in this world these "little guys" you speak of need to be advocates for themselves.
education, work experience, and work ethic are their best advocates.
just because your were born here does not mean you "get a decent paying job".
1
Thank you President Obama!
7
@Sandy Obviously you don't know the obvious facts. The economic acceleration began right after the 2016 election when the business community expected (and then got) deregulation and tax cuts. Up to the end of his presidency, Obama's policies put a strangle-hold on business, especially small businesses, and the overall economy.
6
@MCH
since since 2006 my small business has had growth of 10 percent per year.
care to explain why that runs counter to your facts?
@me
You are smarter than the average.
This week saw a huge sell off in U.S. Treasuries 10-year notes and a rise in the interest rate they pay. This could be significant since these rates control how much it costs to service the National Debt.
Under current law, CBO projects that net interest costs will nearly triple over the next 10 years, soaring from $315 billion in 2018 to $914 billion in 2028 and totaling $6.9 trillion over the period.
Everyone likes to boast about good jobs numbers and UE levels, and that's all well and good. But they should also be eyeing the looming trillion dollar annual deficits the Trump administration is creating.
It may have made sense to have a few years of larger than normal deficits during the years following the financial crisis - due to greatly reduced tax revenues stemming from millions of job losses and higher than normal spending on safety net and stimulus - but trillion dollar deficits in a booming economy begs the question, "What the heck are they thinking?"
Continued sell offs, rising interests rates, and even a slight cooling of the economy and we could easily be headed back into a worse mess than the one we just narrowly escaped.
3
Professor Alan Krueger of Princeton wrote a paper entitled "Will the real Unemployment Rate Please Stand Up?" The official unemployment rate excludes boomers who took early Social Security because of age discrimination. It doesn't include people who dropped out of the labor market because they couldn't find a job. It doesn't include people working at part time and temporary work. And beyond Krueger's paper, it doesn't include people who are underemployed. It doesn't include all the women trying to find a livelihood after raising a child full time. The importation of hundreds of thousands of H1-B workers inflates the employment rates when hundreds of thousands of senior level workers laid off ever since 2000 never got their livelihoods back. Here in WA State 1/7 of the population is getting SNAP and 40,000 school children are homeless. The real story here is the statistical bias in the method of calculating the unemployment rate and how it ignores all of the suffering in the economy.
82
@Linda Seltzer
The discussion of the labor force participation rate partially corrects for this problem -- inclusion of the prime age LFPR would have been even more useful.
@Linda Seltzer
Paul Craig Roberts has been writing about this for years. It's the reason he was let go as Wall Street Journal editor years ago and has been effectively blackballed from the mainstream press.
Sorry President Trump, you are wrong. I will never grow tired of winning.
11
@LarryGr --- Nor the return of trillion dollar deficits?
3
Another day older and deeper in debt . I owe my soul to the company store .
The 1% is doing great
The rest of us ,not so much
32
Stop!
The “unemployment rate” was pretty dang low (0%!) on the cotton plantations of the antebellum South as well.
59
trump claims he inherited "a mess" in the economy and boasts he "turned it around".
But in 2014, 2015, and 2016 Obama created 225,000 jobs per month! How's that a "mess"?. And in 2017 and 2018 job creation has been 194,000 per month under trump.
How's that "turned it around"?
6
Obama planted the trees, but Trump got to gather the fruits.
There's no justice in this universe.
24
Thank you President Obama. Oh wait, the recovery started the day Trump took office. Up til then, we were losing thousands and thousands of jobs each year, but then the criminal in the White House magically changed everything. What's so truly sad is that rabid Trump supporters really believe that, because Fox told them so, and apparently they're incapable of thinking for themselves. So, thanks Obama.
6
@steve And you get your news from the know nothing liberal pundits at CNN and MSNBC? That's a gas!
6
Rather than just a headlining point out that "Unemployment lowest since 1969", the NYT, as always adds "With 8 years of job gains..." to emphasize that "Trump isn't responsible for this piece of good news." Factual, yes. But another example of how deciding which facts to emphasize is entirely political with the newsroom. If Hillary had won, I am 100% certain that the shorter headline would have been written (assuming that unemployment hadn't increased by now....).
20
I don’t spoze that it’s occurred that maybe, just maybe, your oddish complaint about the Times’ having used those gosh-darn fact thingies suggests that this is your warpage, not the Times’?
3
@DRS
If the goal would be to write in a politically biased way, the headline would be better written as 'September hiring misses projections marking the slowest growth of 2018'
If the NYT is as biased as conservatives like to think, they're doing a terrible job at it. The lack of obvious jabs like the above is a case in point.
More likely is that conservatives take anything that isn't 100% pro Trump or pro GOP as 'liberal bias'
1
@DRS That is a weird counter-factual you're pulling out of ... who knows where.
You're getting mad at something that hasn't happened, and never will. Why are you getting upset about the story as presented? Does it rub contra to your preferred narrative? Maybe you'd like to summarize the RIGHT way to relate the information? You get over 1000 characters, give it a shot.
Meanwhile, intellectually honest people can see the persistent negative slops of unemployment since the 2008-09 recession bottomed out.
Even if there had been a GOP POTUS until 2016, its common sense the unemployment rate had nowhere to go but up.
I suggest you find something worthwhile to get upset about, not that Trump is getting too little credit for something he has done nothing to affect in the grand scheme. There's plenty out there. This ain't it.
Thanks Obama!
3
In order to understand the real level of unemployment, You have to figure in some other statistics. 1) if your unemployment benefit have run out you are no longer counted, 2. If you are not signed up at a government unemployment office, and going out on interviews, you are no longer unemployed. So, if you haven't found a job, yur m=benefits have run out and you have given up trying to get a job through the unemployment office you are no longer among the unemployed.
The other "lie" about unemployment numbers is that you are no longer employed if you take a part time minimum wage job because there are no jobs at the wages you used to get.
It's an old Republican trick to make the numbers look good when they are in office.
54
@Jeff You are absolutely correct. There are many people out there who are unemployed because (gasp!) they're over 50 and hiring managers don't want to hire people who resemble their parents.
21
@Jeff @Metrojournalist EXACTLY. Stats can be manipulated to present multiple viewpoints. Those working 2 & 3 jobs just to make ends meet aren't considered unemployed - they're UNDER-employed. They just happen to be working at slave labor wages at multiple jobs with little or no benefits. This now includes professionally trained employees, like teachers. Welcome to the 3rd world employment in the USA.
1
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that "trick" was also in full force when Obama was in office.
I'm a liberal, but it astounds me how hypocritical people can get when they're talking about the economy. It's actually okay to admit that none of us know anything about it.
1
Effect and cause...
Great news that US unemployment is at its lowest level since 1969.
But, don't forget that this change is being seen globally. Here in UK, unemployment is also low - actually, at its lowest level since 1973. That's unlikely to be due to any policy coming from Washington.
8
Left out:
Labor participation rate. The fraction of the work force (employed or seeking employment) that is actually working
Before the recession : 66.1% (June 2008)
Now : 62.7 % (September 2018)
That looks like a small number, but it means that 5.5 million Americans are not at work, that would be at work were the conditions as in 2008
The labor participation rate is a measure of the quality of the jobs offered. It is higher when the jobs are attractive, lower when they are not.
49
@Woof
Was Labor Participation Rate EVER uttered by the (D)s during Obama's two terms in office?
To some degree. As the country gets older and wealthier, you will see the same trend.
Meh.
BLS Labor participation rates remain down, at 62.7%. This is down 3.5% from 2008, and down 4.5% from the Clinton era high of 67.3% in 2000.
It's not as hard to get low unemployment a couple of million people leave the labor pool.
8
@veblen's dog
Here is your chart:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=ltQG
The Obama Recovery continues, but now Birther Liar Nation can celebrate it because a white man is President.
Meanwhile, 1% tax-cut and tax-evasion welfare flows to the country's billionaires and millionaires as the deficit explodes.
Where's the investment in infrastructure, healthcare, education, technology, science, living wages and election-voting rights infrastructure that any modern government would build up during such economic prosperity ??
Sorry, America.....the country needs to invest in the rich.
November 6 2018
Greed Over People has always been an insult to human dignity.
114
“Obama Recovery” sorry not gonna fly, remember the predictions when Trump was Inaugurated that the economy and markets would free fall, Remember Professor Krugman (sic) predicting with 100% certainty we would enter a Depression that would make the Great Depression seem like a walk in the park,
Trump has take. A chainsaw to Obama’s legacy from his executive orders on economy and trade to foreign policy and everything and I mean everything is doing so much better, you know why? Because Obama was a professor he didn’t live in the real world he lives in a theoretical one.
Btw even if you take the “8 yrs” at face value that exactly coincides when the country rejected the total democratic control of Congress and handed it to the GOP
Your Welcome.
9
@Ray L" Because Obama was a professor he didn’t live in the real world..."
And Trump does? His wealth was given to him and maintained by cheating on taxes.
Recall that Obama inherited an economy in free-fall and reversed that, while Trump inherited an economy on cruise control and running the country on China's credit card thanks to GOP tax cuts for the 1%. Remember that the GOP was elected becuase Obama was raising the debt too much.
@Ray L
I am going to disagree with both you and Socrates to an extent.
There was an Obama recovery. Such as it was. He created a lot of gigs. A lot of $10-12 hour junk jobs. Trump has continued this trend. Give him credit where credit is due.
The thing that troubles me is that Trump had to jolt the economy with 1.5 TRILLION dollars in ridiculous tax cuts that will explode the debt and deficit. None of that is translating into a substantial wage uptick. The biggest benefactors are simply doing stock buybacks or doing as the rich always do when they get richer---hoarding cash.
We need to stop referencing the unemployment rate, which is a deeply flawed statistic and formula, as if it were the holy standard of the labor market's vitality.
Firstly, if 4 out of 100 people are unemployed, but one of those 4 stops looking for a job, the unemployment rate goes down from 4% to 3.03%. This is not an example of an improving labor market, it sounds more like black magic. This has been a recurring theme over the past decade and consistent feedback from the labor pool.
Secondly, the Labor Force Participation Rate, which measures the total labor force as a % of the working age population, and arguably more accurately captures the true health of the labor market, continues to be near its lowest rate since the 70's, a period of intense economic stagnation. Prior to the '08 financial crisis, this figure was near it's all-time high, meaning we are not even close to being able to say we have returned to a healthy labor market.
Thirdly, wage growth continues to be woefully low and highlights that not every additional job gained is created equal. More so it demonstrates that we have in large part only been able to replace the more high-paying jobs that were lost as a result of the '08 crisis, with lower paying jobs.
All these points and more are why the avg. American worker continues to feel left behind. When the Government and the media only highlight the unemployment rate in its headlines, and tout it as a positive, it does a great disservice to us all.
42
@Terry Garner Peterson
"More so it demonstrates that we have in large part only been able to replace the more high-paying jobs that were lost as a result of the '08 crisis..."
The high-paying jobs have been disappearing for decades. The tech boom during the Clinton years served to mask many of the underlying structural problems, not least of which were the deregulation and trade deals that his "liberal" administration pushed through. The 2008 crisis would not have happened if Glass Steagall were still in place. These problems are structural, they are bipartisan, and they need to be looked at over a much longer timeframe than simply going back to 2008.
Trumpets will boast about this number, and it is good news. However, the chart clearly shows that this trend started with Obama and the policies enacted after the disastrous Bush administration.
6
And Democrats can’t wait to reverse this trend with mountains of regulations.
10
The trend started in '09, follow the chart. Regulations exist to protect people from corporate greed and power. Things like clean air and water, which apparently some Americans would rather do without. This will not end well, the bubble is going to burst sooner or later.
2
Most of this trend occurred during two Democratic administrations, the momentum of which the current “administration” is coasting on.
What specific regulations are you referring to? If there are “mountains” ready to go you must have at least 25-50 you can point to right away and also specifically how they would “reverse” the trend. Go.
1
Whatever you do, don't get into debt. With Trump in office, this will not end well.
8
@Matt
They still have to learn the difference between deficit and debt!
@Matt
The Constitution places Congress in charge of passing the budget (a fact most people forget). Overwhelmingly, the debit accrued by Obama was by a GOP controlled legislature. This business of placing Presidents (whomever they are) solely responsible for deficits is absurd.
@Matt
That's not the point. The point is, Americans have a short memory span. What goes up in these economic cycles come crashing down in a nasty fashion. Based on Trumps past business sense, and the ineptitude of his administration, this will come down very hard. Needless to say, Obama handed this vibrant economy to this present administration.
Look at the graph and point to the place that indicates the Trump inauguration (if you didn’t know it). Can’t be done. This is obviously one continuous trend. The only difference is that when Obama was in the White House, the GOP said things were terrible. Now the same people are bragging.
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@Dagwood, and the Dems are saying things are terrible. And so it goes.
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@Dagwood
Look at the graph in wage gains, and you can see it clearly when he won the election.
Also, dropping unemployment at the beginning of a recovery is easy. Keeping it going in the latter stages (in Trump's case keeping it going in years 6,7,8 of the recovery) is a lot harder. In fact, no one has ever done it before.
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What the US needs is a little more wage push inflation than the fed has been comfortable with in the past. Inflation is a good thing in an environment with low savings rates and high debt loads. Wage push inflation would also mean the government gets more money at the current tax rates to pay down the debt in the good times. Lower debt loads make it more likely the people will allow the government stimulating the economy by borrowing during the bad times. Otherwise they insist on saving money during the bad times, austerity, which has been a total failure in Europe.
I think the fed may have been too quick to raise interest rates in the past. This may have lead to stagnant wages for most workers. The people at the top get the first slice of the economic pie and they alone may have increased the inflation rate to 2% before the rest of the economy got their cut. Raising rates prematurely may have choked off growth in wages at the bottom. I think it is just fine if the economy runs a little hotter than usual.
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The Dow rose 140 percent under President Obama, nearly 10 million non-farm jobs were added during his two administrations, corporate profits were up 166% and the unemployment rate dropped three points from the time he was inaugurated until he left office. Trump supporters prefer to ignore those numbers and give the current president credit for the economic progress achieved under his predecessor--progress that continued well into trump’s 1st year until today.
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@John Townsend
In how many years?
@John Townsend Obama's % #'s are high because he started from a recession. When a recovery starts, high % growth #'s will be easier to obtain.
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@MCH
using your logic it will very difficult to improve the current economy.
you have declared that this economy is really president obama's economy.
Re: Wages
Wage growth : 2.8%
Inflation : 2.7%
REAL wage growth: 0.1%
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@Woof
Good points. And remember the marginal tax on any increased wage is usually 15-30%, so no real growth in disposable income!
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The economic recovery has been going on for nine years at a consistent unrelenting determined pace since the catastrophic Bush recession. Yet in this ninth year trump asserts he inherited "a mess" and incredibly claims ownership for the whole recovery, including the low unemployment rate. "A mess"? Sure ... it's Obama's fault is it that he handed Trump a lousy economy that had created 16.5 million jobs? If you have near full employment, rising stock markets, strongest dollar in some time, rising consumer confidence, lowest uninsured percentage . . . What's the mess he inherited? In truth trump's been blithely riding the economic recovery success coattails of his predecessor.
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In 2016, the federal deficit was $585 billion. The Republicans were screaming that the economy was dead, Obama was wrecking everything. Today, after two years of Trump, the economy is booming, Trump is the miracle worker, everything's coming up roses. But the deficit is now pushing up against $1 trillion, even with the booming economy.
How did that happen? How could this happen?
Could it be that pushing an additional $400 billion a year into the economy is quite stimulative? Could it be that the established trend just kept on trucking? Could it be that we are finally climbing out of the hole that Wall Street dug? Could it be that we are experiencing a debt fueled sugar high?
Or, is it all Trump?
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@Bruce Rozenblit
No, it is NOT Trump. The economy did not suddenly begin to boom when Trump enter the Oval office. This is the continuation of the Obama economy recovery which began March of 2009! Obama brought down the deficit down while Trump has only increase it in the worst way. Tax cuts primarily for the rich, not infrastructure like he promised.
You can have your own opinion not your own set of facts! Yet, the Obama derangement I'm sure will continue.
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@Savymicheal Obama doubled the national debt to $ 18 trillion.
@MCH
as i am sure you are aware the house controls and approves the money spent by the government.
also, look up the numbers of the accumulated national debt and see how it grew under each president and how some amounts were left off the books by republican administrations. only to be placed on the books by democrats so the numbers are not "cooked".
I'll have to glance at a printed version of the Times, just to make sure that this news piece appears ABOVE the fold.
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@Richard Luettgen
Losing trust in the Grey Lady?
@Richard Luettgen
UPI....
Labor Dept.: Unemployment, job growth down in September
Reuters....
U.S. job growth cools; unemployment rate falls to 3.7 percent
NYT....
With 8 Years of Job Gains, Unemployment Is Lowest Since 1969
and...
Even the Seemingly Disappointing Job Creation Numbers Are Actually Pretty Great
Cynicism aside, I'd say the Times headlines seem pretty positive.
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@nomad127
It's because I DO trust the Grey Lady that I also need to verify.
An aging work force retiring at an ever increasing pace might be an emerging and important part of the low unemployment picture.
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@Bobby Clobber: the numbers take that into account, and do not count people who are not actively looking for work, i.e., those who voluntarily drop out whether to retire or as (say) full time homemakers/child care.
It is only those between 18 and 65 who are ACTIVELY looking for a job.
When the U.S. prospers the entire free world benefits/global market prospers.
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@Coffee Bean
And, presumably when the European Union prospers, the US does too.
After all, the EU is now the larger economy.
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@nolongeradoc
How many COUNTRIES make up the EU?
@Coffee Bean
There are currently 28 members of the European Union. How many states make up the USA?
I'm not sure you get the 'EU' bit. It's an economic, trade and political union. Think of it as a 'Federal' structure, like the US. It means that outside countries deal financially with the whole, not individual national members. A deal with Denmark, for example, is a deal through, or by, the EU.
It's not yet the USE because a small number of member states have presently not joined the common currency; because, until now, military union has proved contentious and because the Federal aspect of lawmaking is only partially developed.
Amongst the EU nations can be counted the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 9th and 14th largest economies of the world. That gives it some collective heft.
The estimate for job growth for this month was 180,000. We know some jobs were lost to the tariff wars. The impact needs investigation.
We also know that there is still slack and we're not yet at full employment. Talk among economists has been that the magic 4% number has changed.
We also know that wages still aren't rising significantly enough.
---
Things Trump did while you weren't looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
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@Rima Regas Guess you didn't read about Amazon. Just how fast should wages be rising? What would satisfy you?
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@Jackson
I have, and not all is as it seems.
I have an Amazon section in the link above, where all the caveats are explained.
Wages have been stagnant for decades.
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@Rima Regas
My wages have doubled over the last few decades. And the tax cut caused them to rise again. Democrats will overtax and add mountains of regulations in their quest for an egalitarian utopia. No thanks.
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I anticipate the Trump crowd will take credit for the work of millions of bosses and workers, especially after being the king of the pink slip.
Looking at the graph, it still looks like prior years employment growth was higher. He'll be all upset about that. Obama, you know.
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@Shakinspear: at a certain point....growth HAS to slow down. You can't reach zero unemployment, because people change jobs and voluntarily quit jobs. It's not a realistic goal. Hence, the ideal of 4%.