Forbes – by Samantha SharfFriday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released yet another disappointing jobs report.
Employers added 113,000 jobs in January, well below the 185,000 economists expected. The unemployment rate, which is drawn from a different survey of households, was down slightly to 6.6% from 6.7% in December. The labor force participation rate ticked up to 63% from 62.8%, which was the lowest rate in more than three and a half decades. The employment-population ratio was up to 58.8% from 58.6% in the prior month.
Employment numbers were revised up just 1,000 for December from plus 74,000 to plus 75,000. The November payroll number was revised up from 241,000 to 274,000, total employment gains those months were therefore 34,000 than previously reported. In 2013 an average of 194,000 jobs were added each month, above 2012′s 183,000 average monthly gains.
Following the news the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both ticked down between .1% and .2% in pre-market trading. Nasdaq futures were up about .1%.
In a note following the report, Kathy Bostjancic, director of macroeconomic analysis for The Conference Board, tried to put a postie spin on a series of reports she says will “likely sparks uncertainty about the strength of the labor market and direction of the overall U.S. economy.” She noted that the three-month payroll average remains strong at 168,000. Reiterating that extreme winter weather played a clear roll in the December results, and to some extent January results, she said The Conference Board expects job gains to rebound to a 180,000 to 200,00 pace once the weather returns to normal.
“The signals from the latest survey of purchasing managers and The Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index point to continued moderate job gains over the next few months, in an improving economic environment,” wrote Bostjancic. “Indeed, if these job gains, and the pay checks they generate, lift consumer sentiment and support spending on replacement vehicles and household appliances and furnishings, it will indeed be an improving economic environment. And if demand is improving, business will respond by investing so as to supply the goods and services in demand.”
The sectors with the most jobs added were construction, business services and hospitality which gained 48,000, 36,000 and 24,000 respectively.The gains in construction offset a decline of 22,000 in December with gains coming from both residential and non-residential building. Business services jobs, while growing, were added a slower pace than its 55,000 average for 2013. The same was true for the hospitality sector which averaged 38,000 jobs added last year.
Most other industries were close to flat, including health care for the second month in a row, but retail trade was down 13,000. Within retail sporting, hobby, book and music stores shed 22,000 jobs, which offset job gains in the prior three months. In January, automotive shops added 7,000 jobs.
A release out this morning from business consultancy Challenger, Gray and Christmas suggest the retail situation in going to get worse. It shows that employes announced plans to cut 45,107 jobs last month, 47% higher than the 30,623 job cuts in December. The largest number of cuts came from the retailsector which announced 11,394 cuts after a disappointing holiday season. Retail cuts were up 71% from January 2012. “Holiday sales gains were relatively weak and many retailers achieved the gains by slashing prices on their products, which adversely impacted their year-end earnings. The post-holiday job-letting in the sector was inevitable,” said CEO John A. Challenger in a statement. Major retailers cutting jobs included Macy’s, Sam’s Club, JC
Anyone who believes this report and these figures must be those who still need to be awakening to the truth, instead of believing this BS!
What a joke this report is!
This Samantha Sharf, must have her head so far up the NWO globalist asses, that she can’t even see the shit all around her head… how sad and what a waste of talent that could be better utilized reporting an article with real figures and data not controlled, issued and published by their 24/7/365 propaganda machine, dictated by TPTB which clearly she is controlled by.
Wake TFU up Samantha! Come out from among them – Oh, forgot, you’re being paid by them to write this shit!
Keep taking that blue pill every day and you will be just fine!
Samantha couldn’t tell the truth if she wanted to. Lying to you is her job. (not implying that fact lets her off the hook, but only that you shouldn’t expect truth from the Zionist news regardless of who’s writing the story).
If Samantha wasn’t willing to lie, they’d find a different whore.
Lie after lie after lie. All that money you paid for college well look at you now sucker. We are high fiving up here on Wall Street because you were such an idiot that you actually believed in the American dream. Maybe that sounds crazy but it seems about right. I mean isn’t there around 100 million former middle class people either living in an RV or a tent somewhere. They didn’t have to screw with these people but they did and they should be justifiably punished.
That’s why 50 million are on food stamps….I think they forgot the “retired to unemployment.”
They also do not take into consideration self-employed people like myself. If I am out of work I cannot collect unemployment or any other benefits.
Self-employed people are off the radar, but I like it that way!!!
yeah it is great until April 15th. 🙁
All I can say about that “report” is: what a load of crap!
Unless one is receiving or has a pending UI claim they are not counted as ‘unemployed’.
91+ million out of work in a nation of about 330 million without removing those 14 & under that is well above 25%
Democrat or Republican, no one in Washington gives a crap about middle class Americans and they’re not about to start. Both parties are eager for a massive influx of immigrants – legal and otherwise – who they plan to use for their own profit, Americans be damned. Both parties find non-citizens much more desirable and useful than American citizens.
Republicans and their wealthy Chamber of Commerce funders would gladly sell the entire country lock, stock, and barrel as long as they got a cut and the Democrats want to use immigrants to fund their personal wealth, their political power, and their graft and corrupt spending boondoggles. America has no adult leadership now or on the horizon and is hopelessly corrupt.
Sadly, America isn’t really the place to be anymore. There’s more economic opportunity and freedom in places like China, Canada, Australia, and Singapore than in the US and many, many countries now have a better quality of life than the US.
America is on a long, accelerating decline. The leadership is in a decayed state along with the culture and the average American is too dumb and miseducated to do much besides get another ass tattoo and drunkenly post it on Instagram. To a degree I can’t blame the voters, though, especially the younger ones. They didn’t ask for the culture they were born into and they’re just riding the decline down as painlessly as they can.
BAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!! ROLMFAO!!!
6.6%??
Oh man, these guys couldn’t print the truth if it hit them in the face. To them it’s suicide.
How can they count the unemployment rate based on those who receive unemployment? That makes ZERO SENSE!!!! I’ve been unemployed for months now and I don’t receive unemployment. What about the people with savings or the ones living at home with mom and dad? What about those who aren’t eligible for unemployment? I mean the factors are endless. You can just base it on who receives unemployment or not. That’s preposterous. But of course, that’s Communism!
“Within retail sporting, hobby, book and music stores shed 22,000 jobs,”
Funny how they didn’t mention Best Buy, Target and Sam’s Club for their retail list since they CUT thousands of jobs last month. Oh and don’t forget Radio Shack. I consider them to be somewhat of a hobby type music store, too.
Ha Yep NC, in Menomonie, Wi. and in Chippewa Falls, Wi. the K Mart is closeing the doors in both those towns and they are only about 25 miles apart. Yea their doors will be closed by May or else it was in May of this year – all their employese will be unemployed. No more jobs working there. 🙁
I’m going to need a bigger shovel for this one……..