Weekend Economists Take a Shot in the Dark, September 28-30, 2012

[Demeter]

14. JOB SITUATION NOT AS BAD AS WE THOUGHT (what do you mean "we"?)

http://prospect.org/article/good-news-bad-news-economy

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a preliminary revision of its previous job estimates on Thursday. (The earlier numbers were based on surveys of 160,000 employers nationwide; the government revises these figures once a year using tax records, which provide more accurate information.) The new report indicates that 2.4 million jobs were created between March 2011 and March 2012, an increase of 20 percent from the previous estimate of two million. This means that for the first time since President Barack Obama took office, the number of jobs in the U.S. economy is higher than it was at the time of his inauguration. Still, the United States has more than four million fewer jobs than before the recession began in December 2007, the nation’s unemployment rate remains at 8.1 percent, and the revision doesn’t reflect the slowdown in hiring since March.

Nonetheless, the new numbers mark a significant milestone in the labor market's gradual recovery, and the fact that more Americans are working now than when Obama took office could provide the president with some political capital heading into the November election.