Good News for President Obama:
The jobless rate fell to 7.8%, the lowest itโs been since January, 2009.ย
Among high school dropouts, the jobless rate fell to 11.3%, the lowest figure for that group in 4 years; it went down by 1.4 percentage points over the last two months.ย There was a drop in the number of people whoโve been out of work more than six months; for the first time since mid-2009 it fell to below five million.ย That rate had peaked at 6.7 million in 2010.
Things happen FAST.ย These things happened really fast:
1.ย The numbers showed more people were working, and thatโs why the jobless rate fell, not because people seeking jobs stopped looking.ย NY Times story here.
2.ย Glass half full, half empty kind of thing.ย Clearly Democrats and Republicans might put their own spin on this.ย Democrts could see this as 31 months with consecutive job growth and a falling jobless rate.ย Republicans could see it as weak growth in jobs, with 43 months of an 8%+ jobless rate.ย Story here.
3.ย Obama campaign joyful, this was good news.ย Caucus story here.
4.ย Jack Welch, former General Elec CEO, yelped to Twitter: โthese Chicago guysโ canโt debate, โso they change numbers.โย A chorus of people claimed the unemployment figure must have been manipulated.ย Business story here.
5.ย Floyd Norris wrote in the NY Times that under Jack Welchโs rule at G.E., bureucrts would willingly change numbers, quoting a Jesuit priest heโs written about in 2009 who worked at G.E. in the early 1980โฒs.ย Story here.
6.ย Wall Street stocks rose on the jobless news.ย Report here.
7.ย The news on jobs was analyzed to make good news for President Obama.ย 538 Analysis here.
8.ย Paul Krugman called it a Republican freakout, saying they couldnโt handle a decent jobs report so accused Democrats of cooking the numbers. He called this
Crazy and stupid; but itโs also scary.
Democrat Derangement Syndrome story here.
Carole