Weak job growth feeds concerns of slowdown

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jobs-20120505,0,5285148.story

WASHINGTON — The nation's long, hard ride to recovery went off track in the spring: Job growth slowed for the second straight month, raising fresh fears about the underlying strength of the economy.

In a disappointing development for President Obama's reelection campaign, employers added a modest 115,000 jobs in April, barely enough to keep up with the natural growth of the workforce. The unemployment rate inched down to 8.1% — not because more people got jobs but because more discouraged workers dropped out of the labor market.

"They've given up looking for work because they don't think there are jobs for them," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "That's a very bad sign."

Overall, the picture that emerges is of an economy that isn't tipping into recession but is expanding at such a frustratingly slow pace that it remains highly vulnerable to shocks. Among those shocks are high oil prices, the problems in debt-strained Europe and a slowdown in the Chinese economy.


Fears mount over global economic recovery as US jobs stall
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/may/04/fears-over-economic-recovery-us-jobs


Fears that the world recovery is running out of steam were heightened on Friday after the US jobs market stalled for a second month and the eurozone appeared to be slipping further into recession.

Just 115,000 new jobs were created across the US in April, far fewer than the 163,000 in the previous month and well short of the 400,000 that have marked previous recoveries. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1%, but this came as the percentage of the population in the labour force declined, in part because people had stopped looking for work.

Markets slumped on the news as traders prepared for a disappointing 2012. The FTSE fell 1.9% to 5655 and the Dow Jones had slipped 168 points to 13,038 by midday in New York.

The report is expected to rattle nerves at the White House, which has enjoyed a run of positive economic news over the last six months. The US stock market has risen 12% since January.