Recovery Summer?

[DinoDoc]

Jobs report: Only 80K last month

President Barack Obama faced grim economic news on Friday as the Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy added only 80,000 jobs in June and the nation’s unemployment rate remained unchanged at 8.2 percent.

The weaker-than-expected numbers come as Obama, who is under constant attack from Mitt Romney over his handling of the economy, is on a campaign bus tour in Ohio, where he is expected to address the report later this morning.Economists had projected the monthly jobs figure would fall between 90,000 and 100,000 — with a smattering of optimists going as high as 125,000.

House Speaker John Boehner immediately pounced on the news, attacking the president on the stimulus bill and health care reform.

“Today’s report shows the private sector clearly isn’t ‘doing fine’ and that President Obama’s policies have failed. The president bet on a failed ‘stimulus’ spending binge that led to 41 months of unemployment above 8 percent. He bet on a government takeover of health care that’s driving up costs and making it harder for small businesses to hire,” Boehner said in a statement.

Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago Professor and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, said the report could have been much worse.

“It’s not a great number but it’s not much worse than expectations,” Goolsbee said on CNBC. “I think the overwhelming thing that we’re dealing with is that the economy slowed down from last year. When the economy slows down the jobs dry up. I think Europe has had to do with it.”

Goolsbee found some positive news in the report, noting growth in some sectors of the economy: manufacturing added 11,000 jobs during the month.

“Manufacturing is having its best couple of years in a long time, even in a tough job market,” Goolsbee said, noting job growth during Obama’s first term has outpaced that of the first term under President George W. Bush. “A president got reelected with a job performance that was worse that we’ve had.”

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, called Friday’s jobs numbers “disappointing.”

“It’s not great but the recovery is intact and moving forward,” Zandi said on CNBC. “Hopefully we’ll gain some strength later in the year.”

The economy requires between 100,000 and 125,000 new jobs per month to keep pace with the growing labor market.

The Labor Department also revised its estimate for jobs added in May to 77,000 — up from an initial figure of 69,000 to 79,000. The Department decreased its estimate for new April jobs from 68,000 to 77,000.

Friday’s report showed that unemployment climbed to 14.4 percent for black American but remained largely steady at 7.4 percent for whites and 11 percent for Hispanics.

The health care sector added 13,000 jobs over the month, while mining, construction, fiancial services and government jobs showed little to no growth.

With the economy stalled, the focus shifts to the Federal Reserve, which could attempt to further lower short- and long-term interest rates in the hopes of jumpstarting the flagging growth.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78169.html#ixzz1zqkMnfLJ

"It’s not a great number but it’s not much worse than expectations." Sounds like an awesome reelection message doesn't it?

 

[Cutlass]

Well, to be fair, the Republican plan is far worse. But it's really something that they are not succeeding in making a case for.

 

[DinoDoc]

The Obama plan for economic recovery has brought us trillions in added debt and no economic recovery. The one bright spot is successful businesses like Solyndra and Abound Solar.

 

[downtown]

To be honest, I'm not sure could possibily change this. There are some awfully strong headwinds coming from Europe, and it's not like another corporate tax cut could spur hiring when demand is pretty meh. Any demand-side program is DOA in Congress. Drastic domestic cuts would hamper demand even more. What could anybody do?

 

[Patroklos]

Obama probably couldn't have made it too much better, but he didn't have to make it so much worse.

His real problem is instead of buckling down and telling us we have experienced a correction (AKA the truth), not a temporary difficulty, he wouldn't be stuck having to explain why reality doesn't match his message of job growth and recovery. To be fair, that is not an easy message for any politician to carry let alone get reelected with. Or a challenger for that matter, which is why Romney doesn't say it either.

Its okay though, Obama will just say he said created OR SAVED, and then declare he saved 100 million jobs without any way to verify that like he always does.

 

[MobBoss]

Well, to be fair, the Republican plan is far worse. But it's really something that they are not succeeding in making a case for.

The republican plan doesnt matter if the current admins plan isnt working.

 

[warpus]

8.2% unemployment doesn't sound that bad to me

 

[MobBoss]

8.2% unemployment doesn't sound that bad to me

Thats because you dont live in America. Thats horrible for this nation.

 

[downtown]

The republican plan doesnt matter if the current admins plan isnt working.

Hmm, my foot hurts, and this bandaid isn't working. I know, I'll inject cancer into it!

Team Mitt seems to think the same thing...I think people are going to ask for some answers, especially if Obama can tie Mitt's ideas to the Bush years...which, given the info Mitt has given us so far, isn't exactly hard to do.

 

[DinoDoc]

That message doesn't seem to be catching on dt. AP-GfK Poll: Obama loses advantage over Romney as economic anxieties increase

 

[downtown]

That message doesn't seem to be catching on dt. AP-GfK Poll: Obama loses advantage over Romney as economic anxieties increase

Thats an older poll...the President has picked up a bit of a bounce from Health Care and Immigration, but I think that general point still stands.

I think its quire likely that Mitt will poll above the President on the Economy. He has to, since that is the only thing his campaign is willing to talk about, and its the core of his entire message....I am a successful businessman, the President isn't, I can fix the economy.

Mitt has to blow the president out on that issue though, and without a clearly defined plan, (more than just "cut taxes bro") I don't think he can do it. The President is politically talented and has advantages on a lot of other issues, and it isn't like Mitt is especially likable.

This certainly isn't great news, and I'm sure Obama would prefer to be talking about almost anything else. I'm not convinced that a) There is really a whole lot that can be done about this by anybody and b) that the way Romney is attacking this issue is the best one. The WSJ just took him to task over it.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Thats because you dont live in America. Thats horrible for this nation.

The indignity of it being suggested that Americans might live like people from other countries.

 

[IdiotsOpposite]

Honestly, this is the Democrats' biggest flaw: They don't relentlessly push their agenda and message like Republicans do. Democrats, for better or worse, have some variance in their policies, and not all of them will march in lockstep and say the same thing.

Too bad, they might get more done that way.

 

[kramerfan86]

Do the republicans have a real plan beyond "Obama's plan is bad"?

 

[Cutlass]

The Obama plan for economic recovery has brought us trillions in added debt and no economic recovery. The one bright spot is successful businesses like Solyndra and Abound Solar.

Most of which deficit is because Obama did not move away from Republican policies as much as he should have. A Republican in his place would certainly have had far higher deficits. Obama didn't do much of any spending increases, he just suffered from the loss of revenue that Republican policies caused, first in the utterly irresponsible Bush tax cuts (which Obama tried to get rid of, but could not get enough support in Congress for) and the high unemployment which was caused by the financial crisis that Republican polices caused. After all, Bush racked up his deficits with an average economy. Obama is stuck with his in an economy Republicans ruined. It's not ethical to compare them.

The republican plan doesnt matter if the current admins plan isnt working.

But they want to replace the current policies with ones that will be a long run disaster for the American people and crippling to the nation.

 

[warpus]

Thats because you dont live in America. Thats horrible for this nation.

If other countries can get by with much higher unemployment, why can't America?

Then again I could be wrong about other countries having higher unemployment. I think we're at 7% here in Canada.

I remember the unemployment in Poland being 5% at some point.. and that being heralded as a very low number. 8% isn't that much higher.

What would be an ideal unemployment % for America?

 

[Cutlass]

If other countries can get by with much higher unemployment, why can't America?

Because we have almost no welfare here.

 

[JollyRoger]

Kerry running as "not Bush" didn't work even though he only had one state to swing. Romney has quite a few more to swing and running merely as "not Obama" is not going to work. There aren't any electoral votes from Switzerland or the Caymon Islands.

 

[FriendlyFire]

The republican plan doesnt matter if the current admins plan isnt working.

Cut taxes for the rich and austerity measures such as slashing education ?
Oh well fiscal conservatives, lets hope it works.

 

[DinoDoc]

bounce from Health Care and Immigration, but I think that general point still stands.

Bounce from health care?: Poll: Affordable Care Act will hurt economy, not help

It's not ethical to compare them.

You will not find one iota of comparison of the two visions here. This thread from my PoV is simply to examine the fruit of Obama's economic vision. After all he was the one that stated and I quote “if I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one-term proposition.”