Unemployment rate falls to 7.8%

The nation's unemployment rate dropped to the lowest it has been in almost four years in September, giving President Barack Obama a potential upbeat talking point as the presidential race heads into the final innings.

The Labor Department reported Friday that the unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in September, a decline of 0.3 percentage point and the lowest since January 2009. The government said the economy created 114,000 jobs, about as expected, and generated 86,000 more jobs in July and August than first estimated.

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For an alternative and somewhat more skeptical view of these statistics see here.

Economy adds a mere 80,000 jobs

The U.S. economy generated a paltry 80,000 jobs in June, showing that the nation's job-creation machine is stumbling even as voters' attitudes about the economy begin to gel ahead of the November election.

The unemployment rate is unchanged at 8.2 percent, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Job-creation has stumbled since March amid worries about consumer spending, the debt crisis in Europe and stagnation in Congress.

"There's just not a lot of momentum in the economy," said Sam Bullard, an economist at Wells Fargo  in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Unemployment Rises; Markets Swoon

Businesses dramatically scaled back hiring in May, pushing the nation’s unemployment rate up to 8.2 percent and stoking fears that the economic recovery has stalled once again.

The Labor Department reported Friday morning that the country added a meager 69,000 jobs last month — less than half the number economists had expected. It also revised its estimate of job growth in April down from 115,000 to just 77,000.

Markets fell sharply at the news. By early afternoon, the Dow Jones, Standard & Poor’s and Nasdaq indexes had tumbled around two percent, with the Dow falling more than 200 points.

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Job Growth Hits a Speed Bump

The recent improvement in the nation’s job market slowed substantially in March as employers expanded payrolls by 120,000 jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The number of new jobs fell far below economists’ estimates and marked the first time since November that employers added fewer than 200,000 jobs. Despite the disappointing numbers, the nation’s unemployment rate ticked down to 8.2 percent.

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The Economy: Good news; but...

The nation’s economic picture brightened in February, as employers added more than 200,000 jobs for the third month in a row and more people were encouraged enough by the growing economy to start looking for work again.

But the good news came with a technical caveat: The monthly unemployment rate -- a crucial number closely watched by both economists and politicians -- remained stuck in neutral at 8.3 percent. Though analysts welcomed Friday’s report as another step in the right direction for the recovery, the jobless rate has become a political flashpoint in Washington and on the campaign trail.

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U.S. Jobless Claims Are Lowest Since 2008

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell to the lowest point in almost four years last week, the latest signal that the job market is steadily improving.

In other economic news, a rise in building permits suggested that the construction industry was growing confident that more buyers were ready to come off the sidelines, and the latest data on wholesale prices signaled that inflation remained largely in check.

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Evidence suggests economic recovery gaining speed

The U.S. economy is like a flywheel: It takes a lot to get it going. Once it starts moving, it can pick up speed pretty quickly.

To see why, look no further than Friday’s jobs report, which offered convincing evidence that the U.S. recovery is finally gaining momentum.

After months of subpar growth in their payrolls, American companies added 243,000 new jobs in January, considerably more than the 150,000 that forecasters expected. That drove the unemployment rate down from 8.5 percent in December to 8.3 percent, extending a rapid decline from 9.1 percent last August.

Since last fall, a series of economic reports have pointed to gradual improvement. But the January employment report tore the cover off the ball.

“It’s very unusual to get an unambiguous jobs report; usually you have a lot of cross currents in the data,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “This is unambiguous. Everything is good.”

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Unemployment Continues To Fall

The U.S. economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low, offering a hopeful sign for hiring in the year ahead.

Employers added a net 243,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported Friday -- that's the most since April and far better than economists' expectations for a gain of only 150,000.

“It’s a strong number, a very strong number, I would say,” said Vassili Serebriakov, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo Bank. “It’s consistent with the broad improvement in the U.S. economic data, but I think the extent of strength in today's report is somewhat of a surprise, and this is a good sign for the U.S. employment market and the U.S. economy.”

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U.S. Jobless Claims Fall Sharply

The number of people seeking unemployment benefits for the first time plummeted last week to 352,000, the fewest since April 2008, the Labor Department said Thursday. The decline added to evidence that the job market is strengthening.

Weekly applications fell by 50,000, the biggest drop in the seasonally adjusted figure in more than six years. The four-week average, which smoothes out fluctuations, dropped to 379,000. That was the second-lowest such figure in more than three years.

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Cautious Signs of Economic Improvement Continue

The job market got a bucket of good news Thursday showing private sector hiring picking up and new claims for unemployment benefits dropping.

The Labor Department reported that jobless claims fell 15,000 to a seasonally-adjusted 372,000 in the week ended Dec. 31 from a revised 387,000 in the prior week. The four-week moving average, seen as a better gauge of labor market trends, dropped 3,250 to 373,250.

Applications have declined steadily over the past three months and have dropped in four of the past five weeks. The four-week moving average fell 11 percent in 2011, evidence that companies are laying off fewer workers.

Meanwhile, businesses boosted hiring by more than expected in December, a private sector employment survey showed Thursday.

U.S. private employers added 325,000 jobs in December, according to the ADP National Employment Report jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the report would show a gain of 178,000 jobs.

Joel Prakken of Macroeconomic Advisers struck a note of caution, telling reporters that the December surge in hiring might have been caused in part by year-end seasonal factors and revisions were possible.

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Some good news on jobs with lots of qualifiers

Some companies are hiring, especially retailers.  But a lot of the new jobs are temp positions and even those that are full time  pay very low wages.  In raw numbers the official unemployment rate fell to 8.6%.  The real unemployment rate remains near 16%.  A significant factor in the decline of the official rate is that many of the long term unemployed have lost benefits and are no longer tracked by the system.  Once you lose your unemployment benefits you are no longer counted as jobless.  Huge numbers of the long term unemployed have simply given up and stopped looking for work.  These people do not figure into any government statistics.

In short, what the numbers show is less a recovery in jobs than a contraction in the number of people that the Labor Department keeps track of.  All of which is not to say no real jobs were added.  Some were.  But not nearly enough to move an accurate statistical measurement by any meaningful degree.

So you think you have a tough work environment

A contest offering $10 to guess which of your colleagues will be fired next is a good reason to quit your job, according to a judge in Iowa.

Administrative Law Judge Susan D. Ackerman ruled that Misty Shelsky, who worked at the QC Mart convenience store chain for two years, was eligible for unemployment insurance after quitting her job because her employer held a contest offering $10 to the employee who correctly guessed which colleague would next be fired.

Shelsky quit after receiving a memo that announced: “NEW CONTEST – GUESS THE NEXT CASHIER WHO WILL BE FIRED!!!," according to case records.

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