U.S. job growth slowed in August, a sign of a slack recovery that could mute any postconvention momentum for President Barack Obama and spur the Federal Reserve to take further steps in an effort to stimulate the economy.
U.S. payrolls increased by a seasonally adjusted 96,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday. The politically important unemployment rate, obtained by a separate survey of U.S. households, fell to 8.1% from 8.3%.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a gain of 125,000 in payrolls and an 8.3% jobless rate.
The civilian labor force participation rate was 63.5% v 63.7% month over month, the lowest since September 1981.
Makes the heart sad.
The unemployment rate fell because people quit looking for a job. It should have gone up with the low new job figure.
What is so very sad is the personal destruction of lives and ambitions this represents for millions of people who don’t want to be in this situation. That along with the realization that this does not have to be!
One example; we have a real problem to solve, energy independence. We have the resources, the talent, and the labor to solve this problem. But instead, this administration is trying to put the coal industry out of business [with ruinous consequences for electrical generation], it has blocked the Keystone pipeline project, and it is attacking fracking, one of the bright spots of our energy future. All these activities represent tens of thousands of high paying jobs lost along with the economic fallout of those jobs and the wealth creation factor. All the dreams and ambitions of those lives are on hold as are their families: held hostage to a failed ideology.
The contrasts for November have perhaps not been clearer since 1980, and maybe they are even clearer now. Vote for continued decline or vote for growth and revitalization.
This administration has done nothing in the past four years to inspire any confidence that they know what they are doing. Not just economically but other areas as well. Why did Obama go on his world apology tour to grovel before other world leaders? What did he hope to accomplish other than to demoralize the American people? Why was he so quick to help overthrow leaders in Egyt and Lybia but will not engage in Syria? What is he afraid of other than Russia and Iran. And speaking of Russia, what is it he wanted them to wait until after the election when he would be bettar able to do what? What did he promise and give away? Why has he thrown Israel under the bus? Our choices should be clearer now than at any time in modern history. Jimmy Carter doesn’t need to worry about being considered as the worst president in American history. Barry Obama has eclipsed him easily.
#4 I am no fan of Obama’s domestic policiies, but I think the average American conservative has no idea of how strong the anti-american feeling was by the end of Bush’s presidency among the ‘man on the street’ even among the U.S.’s closest allies (so I’d hate to think what it was everywhere else). The fact there were no WMD’s combined with rendition, Guatamo Bay and military trials (closely allied governments leveraged their relationship with the U.S. to get their own citizens who were suspects removed from a military trial purely due to the domestic political fallout if they hadn’t), the use of waterboarding and then the argument that it *wasn’t* torture – all of it combined to create a level of illwell towards America that I never expected to see.
That has basically all dissipated now, as far as I can see. And most of that is probably due to Obama adopting a more conciliatory approach in foreign policy – no government wants to try and follow the world’s hyper-power when it is sending off the signal “I don’t need any of you anyway” and “it’s my way or the highway” while doing things that outrage the moral sensibilities of its own citizens.
No doubt there’s been other unfortunate consequences of his foreign polcy, but he’s undone a lot of the antipathy and distrust among America’s own allies that was stirred up during the Bush presidency. And, unless America really doesn’t need any allies, I think that was a prize worth getting, even if you think an even better statesman could have gotten it without the price tag in this case.
Pray for our leaders. We must not allow electoral politics to soil us. We must be vigilant. We are about the politics of God (Civitas dei).
[i]This administration has done nothing in the past four years to inspire any confidence that they know what they are doing[/i]
On the contrary, I believe they know exactly what they are doing. If it doesn’t make sense then I can highly recommend the film “2016 Obama’s America”. In a non-political, documentary genre, way it will show exactly why he is doing what he is doing.
And it will explain why there is no leadership coming from his administration on the jobs front. Free abortion? Fits the plan. Amnesty to illegal immigrants? Fits the plan. Invite the Muslim Brotherhood to the Whitehouse? Fits the plan. Bow to the Saudi Prince, Chavez, Ortega, the Communist Chinese? Fits the plan. Complete unilateral nuclear disarmament? Fits the plan. A robust, capitalistic society that creates wealth at all strata of society thus fueling freedom and dreams? Nope, doesn’t fit the plan.
And then, after the movie fills in the gaps of that part of the puzzle, but things in the middle east don’t quite make sense; I recommend “The Grand Jihad” by Andrew McCarthy.
After all that, if you don’t run to the polls on Nov 6 to pull the Romney/Ryan lever, then you must be a supporter of what this President is about. I can see no other alternative.
As another indicator of our supposedly recovering economy, the construction industry continues its downward slide. It is now at its lowest level since 1946.