Jobs Are the Wild Card in Swing States -LAT

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON — Thirty states added jobs last month and 20 reported declines, the Labor Department said Friday. Some of the largest gains and losses occurred in battleground states that could determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Among August's biggest gainers were the swing states of Florida, which created 16,600 payroll jobs, and Arizona, which added 10,200. The losers list included politically pivotal Ohio, which shed 11,800 jobs, and Missouri, which dropped 5,500.

The state-by-state job tallies underscored the spotty nature of the recovery and the problematic consequences for President Bush, whose economic stewardship is a central issue in the presidential campaign.

Although a majority of states — and the nation as a whole — have been adding jobs over the past year, employers are still paring payrolls in a handful of states considered winnable by either Bush or the Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry.

"There's no better evidence of George Bush's wrong choices than Ohio's economy, which saw more job losses than any other state last month," Kerry said in a statement..........

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-jobs18sep18,1,4812945.story?coll=la-home-politics

[teryang]

1. Florida's figures are misleading due to storms

Our local economy on the east coast has sustained terrible economic damage. The hospitality industry the mainstay of the central Florida economy is on the ropes. The diastrous effects are discussed openly in the local media. At the same time, expenditures for preparation and cleanup from the storms have forced the states citizens to open their wallets and spend freely to remedy the damages as best they can.

Most jobs produced are temporary. Jobs and capital lost are permanent.

Just imagine. I met a couple who just bought a small motel on August first. The roof was ripped off. They are basically out of business.

Restaurants were closed for weeks. Many have sustained substantial permanent damages in the most trafficked tourist areas after just completing costly renovations recently undertaken during the refinancing boom. Their properties are no longer worth the cost of loans to renovate them again. The number of food service and hospitality people out of work is huge.

How do you fix your roof and the associated water damage when the deductible is thousands of dollars and you have nothing in the bank? The people in my neighborhood have had tarps on their roofs for weeks. I haven't seen a roofer begin work yet. This is serious economic damage.

[virgdem]

2. With the hits that Florida has taken from 4 Hurricanes in the last month..

I just wonder what the ramifications of the catastrophic damage will be. It will be interesting, to say the least, how this plays out.

[cmd]

3. Jobs are supposed to increase in Ohio next month.....

because people are going to need help cleaning up their lawns.

http://www.timesreporter.com/left.php?Category=3

Dominick Musisca, branch manager for temporary employer Labor Ready on 30th St. NE, said quite a few of his people have been hired by the companies where they did temporary work.

“We’re getting more customers wanting to use the ‘working interview’ where they have no commitment” until they see how a worker performs, he said.

A lot of his people did roofing work after May’s hail storm, and he’s getting more calls from trucking, plastics and light manufacturing, he said. Homeowners calling for autumn yard work will add to the demand for temporary workers, he said.