printI meant to give you the rundown about the last jobs report, but did not get around to it. Economist Diane Swonk has parsed parts of it.
• Almost half of the 600,000 strong drop in the unemployment rate can be attributed to people either retiring or giving up looking for work entirely.
In general:
• Labor force participation rate is down.
• The 140,000 “gains in private sector employment” are largely due to “retailers hiring more than expected for the holiday season.”
• “Manufacturing remained essentially flat. Manufacturers are also complaining of a shortage of skilled machinists and electricians; many of the most skilled of United Auto Workers (UAW) ranks have now retired.”
The oink-sector did not shed nearly enough jobs:
• 20,000 loss total in public sector jobs.
• Some 5,000 of them are U.S. postal workers. (Alas, the monster describer here is still gainfully employed.)
The United States Secretary of the Treasury in-waiting (if only) has already explained what’s going on in the labor market.
This whole mess is a tribute to government interference in the natural ebb and flow of doing business. For the reasons of grasping control of the whole nation the high taxes, burdensome regulations and interference in general designed to cripple progress, keep people dependant on government largess and generally emasculate the whole economy is a transparent agenda to drive us into socialism. It seems to be working prety well. The Democrats are kiling us and the Republicans are worried more about protecting their shoe shines than they are about fight ing for the country.