U.S. Economy Adds 295,000 jobs, Unemployment falls to 5.5 %
Source: New York Times
The Labor Department reported on Friday that employers added 295,000 workers to their payrolls in February and that unemployment fell to 5.5 percent.
The report was a big improvement from January’s, when employment rose to a newly revised 239,000 jobs and the unemployment rate was 5.7 percent.
Economists were generally positive about the state of the nation’s recovery from the recession, despite its relatively sluggish pace.
“While there are a lot of risks out there, it feels less risky than in the past 25 to 30 years,” Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics, said before Friday’s release. “It feels really, really good out there.”
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/business/economy/jobs-report-unemployment-february.html?_r=0
Very good news....better than expected, much better...here is another quote from the article:
Analysts’ expectations had called for about 230,000 new jobs and for a slight decline in the unemployment rate, which ticked up slightly to 5.7 percent in January.
= new reply since forum marked as read
The official unemployment rate (U-3) only counts jobless people who have looked for work sometime in the past 4 weeks.
This U-6 unemployment rate counts every jobless person who has looked for work, even just once in the past year, as unemployed:
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS13327709
It has come down a lot, but still not at the average of the Clinton or Bush years. But I am encouraged by the trend of the last 5 years.
By the way, a lot of people think that people who have been cut off from unemployment insurance benefits are not counted (a favorite RW meme when there is a Democratic president, and vice versa). Not true -- unemployment benefit status is not at all factored into the calculation of the national unemployment rate. Rather, it is based on a survey of 60,000 households. See: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm (and search the page for the word "insurance"
This exact post comes every month. Clue in. Positive is positive, negative is negative. Why go out of your way to shit on a positive and make it seem like a negative because you don't understand the math?
They have calculated it this way for along long time, it is no different now. Rush Limbaugh uses the same schtick to deride the president. What's your bullshit purpose?
Thanks. 
because...he is a .......NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE IS A
We really need a 10th investigation into Benghazi.
"But what are the REEEEEEEAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL numbers, hmmmmmm????"
[font color = blue]#12>> 85% of which are low-paid service sector crap jobs which, ethically, shouldn't be allowed to count as part of the statistics.<<[/font]
[font color = blue]#31>>Service-providing employment rose by 181,000 jobs in February, down from 206,000 in January. <<[/font]
Not all service providing jobs are low wage -- the service sector is everything except goods-producers. For example, the graphic on that page in your link shows a combined increase of Trade, Transportation, & Utilities, Financial Activities, and Professional & Business of 85,000 -- most of these are middle-paying or better. We've been predominantly a service economy for probably all the way back to the 50's. Please don't make it sound like all service sector jobs are hamburger flippers.
Somehow we seem to be managing
Here is the average hourly wage of production and non-supervisory employees, adjusted for inflation (and expressed in chained 1982-1984 dollars)
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
Note this statistic does not include CEOs or any other kind of executive. This doesn't include business owners. This doesn't include managers or supervisors. These are all people working for someone else for a paycheck who have noone reporting to them. These are not the financial and economic glitteratti. And yet they are doing better than under Bush, even better than under Clinton.
Here is the average hourly wage of production and non-supervisory employees, adjusted for inflation (and expressed in chained 1982-1984 dollars)
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
Supposedly because this will mean the feds will raise interest rates which, really, is about time.
Here is the average hourly wage of production and non-supervisory employees (not inflation-adjusted):
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000008
When adjusted for inflation (and expressed in chained 1982-1984 dollars)
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0500000032
What Trickle-Down Economics Has Done to the US: The Rich Get All the Money
...
That Improving Economy Is Further Away Than It Appears
Leisure and hospitality - the fastest growing major blue-skill industry - is the worst sector. The average leisure and hospitality worker makes just $18,900 a year (gross, before taxes). This is not even enough to keep a family of three above the poverty level ($19,790 in 2014). Similarly, retail, the largest blue-skill sector, is second-worst in terms of pay, with average annual earnings of $27,700. - Mike Cassidy, Where Are the Jobs? 2015 (1)
By most media accounts, the US economy at the beginning of 2015 is recovering nicely from the Great Recession. GDP is growing at a historically healthy rate, above 2 percent per year. Unemployment is about the historic average, at 5.7 percent. The stock market is near record highs. And more jobs are being created than at any time in more than 10 years. But this is all a great deception. The expansion is benefiting a tiny minority of the population only - the very rich. No one else has any money, and without significant changes in government policies, no one except the wealthy is likely to have any in the future.
...
http://truth-out.org/news/item/29447-what-trickle-down-economics-has-done-to-the-us-the-rich-get-all-the-money
No difference between the war-mongers and the job-mongers. People so desperate for good news they refuse to acknowledge the details in the fine print and thus get exactly what they deserve.
Btw, the author of this well-substantiated article is a member here, and has a book coming out.
