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Showing Original Post only (View all)The lowest jobless rate since 2008 [View all]
The lowest jobless rate since 2008
By Steve Benen
For most of President Obama's first term, one of the more common Republican talking points focused on the overall unemployment rate: it was stuck above 8%, a fact they blamed on the president who inherited a global economic crisis.
You may have noticed that this GOP talking point has since vanished...the unemployment rate is down to 7.5%, which is not only the lowest point of the Obama presidency, but also the lowest since late 2008. It's dropped a full point in the last year and a half, a 2.5 points since its October 2010 high.
It's also one of the fastest improvements in the jobless rate in the last 30 years.
<...>
Incidentally, the other main Republican talking point on jobs for much of Obama's first term was that the net total of jobs gained on the president's watch is zero. It was always a ridiculous argument -- it was predicated on the assumption that Obama deserved the blame for the jobs lost a couple of weeks after his inauguration -- but it looks even sillier now. To date, the net gain for jobs under Obama is over 1.5 million overall and over 2.2 million in the private sector.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/03/18037220-the-lowest-jobless-rate-since-2008
By Steve Benen
For most of President Obama's first term, one of the more common Republican talking points focused on the overall unemployment rate: it was stuck above 8%, a fact they blamed on the president who inherited a global economic crisis.
You may have noticed that this GOP talking point has since vanished...the unemployment rate is down to 7.5%, which is not only the lowest point of the Obama presidency, but also the lowest since late 2008. It's dropped a full point in the last year and a half, a 2.5 points since its October 2010 high.
It's also one of the fastest improvements in the jobless rate in the last 30 years.
<...>
Incidentally, the other main Republican talking point on jobs for much of Obama's first term was that the net total of jobs gained on the president's watch is zero. It was always a ridiculous argument -- it was predicated on the assumption that Obama deserved the blame for the jobs lost a couple of weeks after his inauguration -- but it looks even sillier now. To date, the net gain for jobs under Obama is over 1.5 million overall and over 2.2 million in the private sector.
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/05/03/18037220-the-lowest-jobless-rate-since-2008
Dow Jones Reaches 15,000 For First Time
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/dow-jones-reaches-15-000-for-first-time
Yup, Mitt's (and his allies) predictions sucked: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022462260
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woohoo! 5 years out, jobs are back to what they were at the start of the recession!
HiPointDem
May 2013
#4
"if this pace continues for the entire year!" = but it won't, and hasn't. sequester. it will be
HiPointDem
May 2013
#7
my town is being destroyed by unemployment & you think i'm wishing for more? get out of your
HiPointDem
May 2013
#29
Mine too, but I guess that we're not supposed to believe our lying eyes.
AnotherMcIntosh
May 2013
#36
But according to the rah-rah squad, there's nothing to blame the Republican House for
nxylas
May 2013
#124
62 months & we're still not back to zero. slowest recovery in modern history. slower than
HiPointDem
May 2013
#13
i didn't say obama had been in office 62 months. i didn't say *anything* about obama.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#21
i didn't say it did. i said "from the start of the recession". your attempts at distraction are
HiPointDem
May 2013
#83
unemployment to population ratio 25-54 years -- lowest since women started entering the
HiPointDem
May 2013
#25
no, i think obama doesn't control anything. he is entirely powerless to mystical forces of
HiPointDem
May 2013
#14
obviously, presidents don't control anything and are completely irrelevant. you told me so yourself
HiPointDem
May 2013
#20
slower recovery jobs-wise than the great depression. & unemployment was higher under reagan.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#19
Thats fairly misleading considering the unemployment rate was stuck well above 10%, even above 15%.
phleshdef
May 2013
#63
The recession Reagan faced was overall way less significant, especially the housing market.
phleshdef
May 2013
#74
depends on how you define 'worst', the reagan recession reached higher unemployment.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#61
And he had a Democratic House and Senate fix it for him, that's why it was shorter.
Ikonoklast
May 2013
#62
funny, i didn't say word 1 about obama. maybe the problem is with the readers.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#82
When you were unemployed during the Reagan years, you did find work elsewhere.
duffyduff
May 2013
#93
Typical GOP\Basher meme; Downplay horrible horrid effects Republican Created recession was
uponit7771
May 2013
#17
5 years out and there are still fewer jobs total than before the recession started. that's a *fact*.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#27
you know what? i don't care. you clearly can't even read. "the guy i like" = ? i don't like any
HiPointDem
May 2013
#85
Perhaps you'd prefer to return to the 10+% rate at the height of the recession? Sheesh.
RBInMaine
May 2013
#81
1) Your numbers are wrong. 10% was the highest UE went, for one month, Oct. '09.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#125
It's MUCH WORSE than that. Labor force participation rate falls to lowest in a generation
kenny blankenship
May 2013
#120
3 million fewer jobs today than before the start of the recession. FEWER JOBS THAN BEFORE
HiPointDem
May 2013
#30
i didn't *say* the recovery began 5 years ago. but just for the record, it supposedly began
HiPointDem
May 2013
#51
3 million fewer jobs than before the recession, despite 5 years of population growth.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#84
i'd have no problem if the OP wasn't misleading. the rate they're touting is for ONE MONTH.
HiPointDem
May 2013
#45
There is a chart in the OP ... its pretty clear how long a period it refers to.
JoePhilly
May 2013
#53
yes, you're right on the op, i'm mixing the two articles posted by prosense. it's the other one
HiPointDem
May 2013
#58
You're right -- but we should be screaming at Congress. We need another stimulus. nt
pnwmom
May 2013
#70
Any one of us who voted Democrat should feel that we have made a small contribution...
JackN415
May 2013
#32
+10000.... AND pass the Trans-Pacific free trade assault, and expand H-1B quotas.
woo me with science
May 2013
#96
I think it's interesting that we aren't given reports of what actual income is
snappyturtle
May 2013
#106
And plans for cutting SS, and for the Trans-Pacific free trade assault are still in place.
woo me with science
May 2013
#95
How much of the change is due to long-term unemployed no longer being counted in the labor force?
limpyhobbler
May 2013
#101
oh, right. My daughter helped that figure - though she still has no job
bread_and_roses
May 2013
#107