On pace for "strongest annual rate for private sector job growth since 1999"

[ProSense]

Employment Report Comments and more Graphs

by Bill McBride

Total nonfarm employment is up 2.077 million over the last year, and up 783 thousand so far in 2013 (a 2.35 million annual pace).

Private employment is up 2.166 million over the last year, and up 813 thousand so far in 2013 (a 2.44 million annual pace).

This would be the strongest annual rate for private sector job growth since 1999 (update) if this pace continues for the entire year! Imagine if there was less fiscal restraint ... Hopefully fiscal restraint will ease later this year, and we will see an increase in economic growth.

Although this report was somewhat better than expectations (and much better than some of the "whisper" numbers), it is still a fairly weak job growth considering the slack in the economy (the upward revisions to February and March make this a more solid report). I'd like to see an average or 250 thousand jobs per month or more.

- more -

http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2013/05/employment-report-comments-and-more.html

Yup, imagine if there was no Republican obstruction.

The lowest jobless rate since 2008
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022792757

Krugman: Baltic Brouhaha
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022780980

[sharp_stick]

1. This is nice to see

it's been so long I really hope it keeps climbing to get us to the 250k a month.

[ProSense]

2. Yes, it is. n/t

[Rex]

3. And just think how far along we would be if the GOPukers

were not at every turn trying to stop any job growth or practically anything getting done to help America! I hope it comes back to bite the GOP in the ass in 2014 and 2016!

[ProSense]

4. Yup, which is why

"And just think how far along we would be if the GOPukers were not at every turn trying to stop any job growth or practically anything getting done to help America! "

...I pointed to this post by Krugman.

The Jobs Program That Wasn’t

Macroeconomic Advisers on the American Jobs Act, proposed a year ago:

We estimate that the American Jobs Act (AJA), if enacted, would give a significant boost to GDP and employment over the near-term.

-The various tax cuts aimed at raising workers’ after-tax income and encouraging hiring and investing, combined with the spending increases aimed at maintaining state & local employment and funding infrastructure modernization, would:
-Boost the level of GDP by 1.3% by the end of 2012, and by 0.2% by the end of 2013.
-Raise nonfarm establishment employment by 1.3 million by the end of 2012 and 0.8 million by the end of 2013, relative to the baseline

Of course, it that had happened, Obama would be more or less a lock for reelection. Instead, having blocked the president’s economic plans, Republicans can point to weak job growth and claim that the president’s policies have failed.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/the-jobs-program-that-wasnt/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022780980

[Wounded Bear]

5. Cue the RW chorus of....

"See, austerity works!"

[ProSense]

6. Yeah, cue Boehner

Boehner: ‘Some Good News’ In Jobs Report

House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said Friday that there's "some good news" in the April jobs report but blamed President Obama for hobbling more "robust" economic growth.

His full statement:

There’s some good news in today’s report, but the president’s policies still aren’t providing the robust economic growth and job creation the American people desperately need. To get things moving, we need to seize opportunities the president has been ignoring, and focus on growing our economy rather than growing more government. That means expanding energy production and modernizing our laws to make life work for more American families. It means controlling spending, simplifying our tax code, and reining in red tape that is choking small business owners who want to hire more workers. And it means repealing ObamaCare, and replacing the president’s sequester with smarter cuts and reforms that put us on a path to a balanced budget. Republicans will continue to focus on these and more in the months ahead, and will work to unleash our economic potential and expand opportunity for everyone.

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/boehner-some-good-news-in-jobs-report

Translation: It means more austerity, de-regulation, repealing Obamacare and enacting the Ryan budget.

Idiot!

[ProSense]

7. A point on Boehner's statement:

He claims the President's policies are holding back the recovery, and then goes on to suggest that he has the remedy: "repealing ObamaCare, and replacing the president’s sequester with smarter cuts and reforms"

What's wrong with that picture? He doesn't need the President's approval/permission to move ahead. In fact, Congress is free to end the sequester, and they have a framework, which includes more stimulus, from the President to do so. They can tweak the President's proposal or repeal the sequestration, and that problem would be solved.

[sheshe2]

8. Fifth Rec!

Let's vote the GOP out in 2014!

Thanks ProSense.

[kelliekat44]

9. As soon as they get the public sector employment up the economy will really take off. Public

employees earn fairly good salaries, spend a lot, and keep businesses booming where they are located. Cutting them to the extent that was done at both the state and Federal level was foolish and self-defeating as far as the economy goes.

[ProSense]

10. Exactly.

The Loss Of Government Jobs Is Holding Back The Economy

By Bryce Covert

The jobs report out this morning was full of good news: unemployment fell to 7.5 percent as the economy added 165,000 jobs, while big upward revisions to the past two months’ jobs numbers were added. The private sector carried those figures, adding 176,000 jobs in April. Yet the number was dragged down by the loss of 11,000 public sector jobs.

This has been a steadily recurring trend with each monthly jobs report: even when the private sector adds a solid number of jobs, the overall figure is pulled down by losses in the public sector. 741,000 jobs have been lost in the government sector since the beginning of the recovery period in June 2009, with 89,000 gone since this time last year.

Overall, the government has shed 718,000 net jobs since President Obama took office. While often accused of bloating the government, the trends show exactly the opposite: Obama has overseen a sharp decline in public sector payrolls as compared to his predecessor President George W. Bush, as can be seen in this chart from Calculated Risk:

<...>

While government workers have been maligned as lazy paper pushers, many of them perform vital work that benefits their communities. Take, for example, the loss in teaching jobs. “Local government education” jobs, or in other words teachers, dropped by 1,500 last month and have declined by 355,500 since the recovery began.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/05/03/1959171/government-jobs-holding-back-recovery/

Krugman in 2012"

States of Depression

By PAUL KRUGMAN

The economic news is looking better lately. But after previous false starts — remember “green shoots”? — it would be foolish to assume that all is well. And in any case, it’s still a very slow economic recovery by historical standards.

There are several reasons for this slowness, with the most important being the overhang of household debt that is a legacy of the housing bubble. But one significant factor in our continuing economic weakness is the fact that government in America is doing exactly what both theory and history say it shouldn’t: slashing spending in the face of a depressed economy...if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era.

Notice that I said “government in America,” not “the federal government.” The federal government has been pursuing what amount to contractionary policies as the last vestiges of the Obama stimulus fade out, but the big cuts have come at the state and local level...We’re talking big numbers here. If government employment under Mr. Obama had grown at Reagan-era rates, 1.3 million more Americans would be working as schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, etc., than are currently employed in such jobs.

And once you take the effects of public spending on private employment into account, a rough estimate is that the unemployment rate would be 1.5 percentage points lower than it is, or below 7 percent — significantly better than the Reagan economy at this stage.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/05/opinion/krugman-states-of-depression.html