Private Jobs Turn Positive for Obama Presidency

[ProSense]

Private Jobs Turn Positive for Obama Presidency

By Sudeep Reddy

Friday’s disappointing employment report showed slowing momentum in the labor market since the start of the year. But President Barack Obama, who officially launches his reelection campaign Saturday, overcame one threshold: the number of private-sector jobs in the U.S. economy is now higher than the month he took office.

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Overall Jobs
The nation’s non-farm payrolls reached 133 million (reported as 132,989,000) in April’s preliminary seasonally adjusted count from the Labor Department. That’s 152,000 more than the level in February 2009, though still 572,000 fewer than in January 2009. (January 2009 posted the worst jobs decline of the downturn, a loss of 818,000 jobs in a single month.) If the job gains continue around the relatively slow pace we saw in April, the overall jobs count will be above the January 2009 level before election day.

Private-sector Jobs
With the latest report, total private payrolls are now higher than they were in January 2009. The latest count put private-sector jobs at about 111 million in April (reported as 111.02 million), or 35,000 jobs more than the January 2009 level. Private payrolls as of April were up 760,000 from Obama’s first full month in office in February 2009.

Government Jobs
Total public-sector employment in April stood at almost 22 million. That’s down by 607,000 from January 2009 and 608,000 from February 2009. The losses all came at the state and local levels. Employment by the federal government, at 2.8 million in April, was about 31,000 more than the January 2009 level. State government employment stood at 5.1 million in April, down from 5.2 million in January 2009. Payrolls of local governments stood at 14.1 million, down from 14.6 million in January 2009.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/05/04/private-jobs-turn-positive-for-obama-presidency/

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The employment recovery during Mr. Bush's first term was very sluggish, and private employment was down 913,000 jobs at the end of his first term. The recovery has been sluggish under Mr. Obama's presidency too, but there are now 35 thousand more private sector payroll jobs than when Mr. Obama's term started.

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/05/april-employment-summary-and-disucssion.html

[ProSense]

1. Kick! n/t

[Dawson Leery]

2. k/r

[ProSense]

3. These little signs

of progress get overlooked. The recovery is slow, but it's steady. Republicans obstruct, and then complain, which is convenient for Boehner: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entries/boehner-on-jobs-numbers-more-evidence-obamas-policies

[Dawson Leery]

5. Manufacturing jobs are returning too.

When one considers the GOP set out to sabotage the economy in order to defeat Obama, the economy is looking relatively respectable.

[politicasista]

4. Kick