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Post by rjfliberal07 on Apr 6, 2007 11:52:25 GMT -6
Job growth showed surprising strength last month, the Labor Department said. Non farm payrolls expanded by 180,000, higher than the 168,000 projected in a survey of economists by Market Watch. www.marketwatch.com/Apparently even Construction added 56,000 new jobs. My question is why would they be adding jobs now with the housing market falling apart? Was there not construction job declines in the previous few months? I know that it being spring, construction activity should pick up, but under these circumstances, I question that logic. ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png)
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 6, 2007 14:34:02 GMT -6
Job growth showed surprising strength last month, the Labor Department said. Non farm payrolls expanded by 180,000, higher than the 168,000 projected in a survey of economists by Market Watch. www.marketwatch.com/Apparently even Construction added 56,000 new jobs. My question is why would they be adding jobs now with the housing market falling apart? Was there not construction job declines in the previous few months? I know that it being spring, construction activity should pick up, but under these circumstances, I question that logic. ![???](//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/huh.png) I agree with you about the lack of logic. I have some doubts about the numbers themselves. It seems that with New Home Sales declining, there would be fewer jobs in residential construction. However, it still appears from Federal statistics that new homes are being completed, and well in excess of the number being sold. Home builders seem less pessimistic about declining home sales than would be expected. Also, it's worth pointing out that March's 56,000 increase in construction employment is still less than February's -61,000 decline. I suspect next month's Construction employment will show a large decline as well. Apparently there has been an increase in non-residential construction. But this makes no sense either. With the economy slowing, and massive lay-offs taking place throughout the country, it's difficult to see why there'd be an increased demand for non-residential building. Construction Spending reports for March comes out near the end of the month. It'll be interesting to see if there is an increase in total spending to match the increase in Construction employment. Manufacturing employment declined -16,000 in March. This is the 9th straight monthly decline. Manufacturing has been in steady decline since Bush was fraudulently elected the the 1st time. Since January 2001, the index of manufacturing hours has declined from 114.0 to 95.2 in March of 2007. Clearly manufacturing is in already in recession. Despite the Bush administration's claims that the employment situation is improving, many statistics contradict that assessment. The true unemployment rate has been kept artificially low by simply reclassifying truly unemployed workers as 'not-in-labor-force", thus removing them from the unemployment number totals. Since December 2006, a total of 722,000 workers have "dropped out" of the labor force and have entered the "not-in-labor-force" category. Meanwhile, only 455,000 more workers have found jobs. It's certainly easy to concoct a low unemployment rate if you just keep removing unemployed workers from the unemployment count, and then put them in the not-in-labor force category. A far better indicator is the Employment-Population Ratio. This ratio has been nearly constant at 63.3 from October 2006 through March 2007. This employment stagnation perfectly parallels the real wage stagnation over the same period. Real hourly wages (measured in inflation-adjusted 1982 dollars) are unchanged since November. Real weekly wages are actually less than they were in October 2006. Below is chart from Briefing.com showing the average workweek over the last 10 years. Note how it has remained lower throughout Bush's presidency and that it has not improved significantly, even during our alleged "recovery." ![](http://www.briefing.com/Common/Images/Content/PageContent/EcData/workweek.gif) Today's employment report was a fluke. It may even be falsely overstated. At least many of it's claims are distortions. The unemployment rate has clearly been manipulated. The average workweek is still at recessionary levels. Manufacturing, Autos, and Housing are already in recession. The only strong points in the economy are the Corporate Media Propaganda industry and the Financial "Innovation" industry. And probably the legal defense industry, as investigations continue into the Bush Corruptocracy.
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Post by rjfliberal07 on Apr 6, 2007 20:33:11 GMT -6
Construction Spending reports for March comes out near the end of the month. It'll be interesting to see if there is an increase in total spending to match the increase in Construction employment. Yeah, it will be interesting to see what construction spending is by then. If it shows a decline, then more than likely the 56,000 new construction jobs was a guesstimate based on the usual seasonal increase in demand for construction workers. However, with the housing market, credit area, and manufacturing all heading south, I think those "56,000 new construction jobs'' will be magically adjusted lower a month or two from now, when the media won't report it.
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Post by blueneck on Apr 6, 2007 21:02:36 GMT -6
It sure doesn't jibe with the recent reports here in the rust belt, where IN, MI and OH once again led the nation in mfg job losses. MI I beleive has the highest unemployment in the country - pushing 9% in real numbers - not the phony ones that do not account for the underemployed and those that have fallen off the unemployment roles.
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Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 7, 2007 4:14:45 GMT -6
with the housing market, credit area, and manufacturing all heading south, I think those "56,000 new construction jobs'' will be magically adjusted lower a month or two from now, when the media won't report it. That's exactly what I think will happen. Increased construction employment is inconsistent with the declines in construction spending. And the small number of manufacturing jobs lost are inconsistent with the numerous reports of large layoffs in the manufacturing sector. No wonder this administration can't do anything competently. All of their time and manpower is devoted to manipulating (and creating) facts and statistics. And catchy sound-bites.
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