Okay, we know it's political silly season but sorry I still don't see the reason for the outrage! When there is an addition to the number of jobs added and a subtraction to the unemployment number... how is that a bad thing! And by the way for those not clued in to the "real America", not everyone who falls off of the unemployment rolls is a hard luck story. Many statistics show that some people who were unemployed are now starting their own businesses, in fact I have two friends who have been out of work for over 9 months who teamed up to start their own event planning company about 8 weeks ago and both are doing just fine. But for those who say those 115,000 jobs added mean nothing, again I say, ask those 115,000 people who finally got a job last month just how much it means!
Maybe I'm way too far outside of the so-called beltway, but I still don't get it. How is adding jobs EVER a bad thing? Even if it isn't exactly how many we thought it should be, at least we're not losing jobs. Remember how that felt?
In just over 3 short years, we have come from losing 700,000 jobs per month to gaining over 100,000 jobs per month, I don't care what any overpaid economist says... that's GOOD NEWS! Are we supposed to shrivel up in a corner because some egghead says that we should have 160,000 jobs one month and instead we have 120,000? Oh please! No one will ever convince me that after the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, any month where we actually ADD jobs is a bad thing. Now, when we start losing jobs, wake me up!
And the stock market? If we have learned nothing else, we have learned that the stock market overreacts to anything. A dead bee on the sidewalk in front of the New York Stock Exchange could send honey futures plummeting while a stray cloud in the sky could send the Weather Channel's stock soaring! So I usually refrain from taking my cue on the state of the economy strictly from how the stock market reacts to anything. (and by the way, if some Republicans have their way, your health care benefits and your Social Security will depend on the life span of that little bee... think about it!)
Bottom line, once again, we had another month of job growth. Yes, it's not as much as we want or need and it's mostly in the private sector, which is where most jobs are created these days since our Republican governors are slashing public sector jobs as quickly as we can say 'partisan politics'! Isn't it funny how no one in the media is asking why over 600,000 jobs in the public sector (mostly government jobs) have been slashed while the private sector is steadily growing? If you think it's a coincidence that Republican governors across the country are slashing jobs in the middle of a recession during a Democratic presidency, you're smoking something really strong... or really good! Anyone who's anyone knows that the jobs number is what everyone is looking at to judge Barack Obama's presidency and if our little GOP minions in various state houses can add to that misery virtually unnoticed by cutting a few thousand jobs here and there, well that's all the better, right? FYI... this is the part where you start asking questions media!
Look, maybe our jobs gauge is not on 'F' where we want it or need it; but it's certainly not on 'E' which is where it was just over 3 years ago! And my friends, that extra little tank of gas (however pricey) is still a reason to celebrate!
Respectfully-
Dee Evans