US created 223,000 jobs in April, unemployment rate falls to a seven year low!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

The U.S. economy created 223,000 jobs in April, bouncing back from a sluggish period the first three months of the year, as companies shook off the effects of a surging U.S. dollar and falling profits. The unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low of 5.4 percent, the Labor Department said Friday.

Economists expected nonfarm payrolls to rise 224,000 in April, with the unemployment rate dropping to 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent in March. It was the lowest number since lowest since May 2008.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/102661776


Viva Obama

[jwirr]

1. Back in the 60s that would have been considered good. The problem today is not how many have

jobs but how many of those jobs are good jobs. We still had factories etc. with good paying jobs.

[Johonny]

2. I blame Obama

[NCTraveler]

4. +1. nt.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

3. Don't worry. I'm sure we'll have a Bush come in to mess it all up.

Again.

[econoclast]

5. Actually LOST 250K FullTime jobs

Thats right. The Household Survey - the same data set used to calculate the Unemployment Rate also reports on the number of Full Time jobs.

The data series is Employed -Usually Work Full Time.

The number of Full Time jobs declined from a level of 121,024,000 in March to 120,772,000 in April. A LOSS of 252,000 Full Time jobs.

In fact, the number of full time jobs peaked in Nov 2007 at 121,875,000. Thats right. We have yet to regain the number of full time jobs we had over seven years ago! We are over 1.1 MILLION jobs short of where we were in 2007. And there are 17 million more people now than there were then.

Don't believe me? You can look it up. I'd recommend the St Louis Fed's FRED data library website. Look for data series - LNS12500000

[progree]

8. Full-time workers up 1,265,000 over last 5 months (253,000/month average)

Did you make a big HOO-HAH when fulltime workers went up by 552,000 in September, 427,000 in December, and 777,000 in January, for example?

Monthly changes in full-time workers (in thousands): http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12500000
` ` `` Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2014) 410 209 203 396 332 -538 196 310 552 371 -174 427
2015) 777 123 190 -252



Note this is a highly volatile data series, as are most of the Household Survey numbers (in other words, most of the month to month changes is statistical noise)

I talk about this on my EF-0 page under the topic "Highlighting the adverse one-month or other short-term changes in some highly volatile component, and making it seem like it's the story of the whole Obama administration's job record. Also known as cherry-picking the bad statistic of the month

Should we perhaps look over the past 12 months:

-880,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
+487,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2,314,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)

Or since the jobs recovery began in March 2010?
-2,356,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
+111,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+9,994,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)
(so much for the meme that all the new jobs are part-time)

[progree]

9. If we want to get back to Nov 2007, maybe we should elect Jeb Bush. Or Scott Walker?

and get back to the good ol' rah rah boom boom days when we had a white man in the White House? [font color = "gray", size = 1]{sarcasm thingy just to be sure}[/font]

We lost 252,000 full-time jobs in April
In fact, the number of full time jobs peaked in Nov 2007 at 121,875,000. Thats right. We have yet to regain the number of full time jobs we had over seven years ago! We are over 1.1 MILLION jobs short of where we were in 2007. And there are 17 million more people now than there were then.
BLS full-time worker data series: http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12500000
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026642259

Yes, most of the economic statistics suck when compared to the peak in 2007. This is one of the classical polemicist tricks (from my EF-0 page at my sigline)

(5). Comparing the current statistics to 2007's statistics, as if 2007 was a normal economy we should get back to - I see this all the time. Yes, today's economic statistics just about across the board suck compared to 2007's. But keep in mind that 2007 was not a normal economy. It was a very sick bubble economy with a very high fever -- people using their houses as ATMs to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Anybody could get a mortgage, virtually no questions asked. The belief that housing prices never go down, at least not on a national average scale (thus the theory that a geographically diversified bundle of mortgages was always a safe bet).

The same for comparisons to 2000 -- that too was a very sick economy -- astronomical price/earnings ratios in the stock market, day trading and momentum investing. The belief that Alan Greenspan had mastered the "Goldilocks" economy (not too cool, not too warm) and that, now that we understood how to use the Fed's powers to control the economy, we will never have a recession again. That tech companies with huge negative earnings and no business plan were great investments. That we were all going to the moon, and we were all going to the stars (speaking of the economy and the stock market).

Well, I'm extremely very sorry. But we don't want to get back to the very sick high-fever bubble economies of 2000 or 2007.

[joshcryer]

11. Say hello to the boomers.

Got a problem with people retiring?

[Scurrilous]

6. K & R

[SidDithers]

7. DU rec...nt

Sid

[Number23]

10. So shocked to see how poorly received this thread is here. Really. Shocking.

I thought at the very least the Frenzied Faithful would come in if for no other reason than to launch their stupid and predictable cries of "Turd Way propaganda!11one!" and give everyone a good chuckle.

[joshcryer]

12. I await the "90 million unemployed" claim.

BLS surveys are the most coveted in the industry. They are very accurate (and very expensive to produce).

It comes up every now and again: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024712350

[Number23]

13. Sweet Jesus. Are there really people on this planet that believe that nearly ONE THIRD of Americans

are out of work because they can't find jobs??

I don't understand that OP at all! The only thing that makes the slightest bit of sense is that the usual non-comprehending posters will grab any attempt -- including their inability to read and their inability to understand basic things like numbers -- as yet another reason to bash this administration.

[joshcryer]

14. I think I said that in that thread.

Or someone did. I just know it was a "bash Obama" moment. Just ridiculous. The recs speak for themselves. A lot of people haven't even bothered to remove their recs because it's just one of those obscure threads.

Check out that rec list, you'll see what I mean.

[MindPilot]

15. Unemployment at my house is still about 50%

My SO hasn't had a full time job for a good three years. Maybe this hiring surge just hasn't made it out west yet.

[MineralMan]

16. Thank you, Mr. President.