President Sees Positive Results In Recent Labor Stats

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released some arguably disappointing employment numbers for July, but President Barack Obama touted the progress that the private sector is making and acknowledged that Americans need faster relief.

“July’s job numbers reflect in part expected loss related to the Census winding down,” Obama said. “But the fact is, we’ve now added private sector jobs every month this year instead of losing them.. that’s a good sign.”
 
The president also credited progress to the addition of 183,000 jobs to the manufacturing sector. Obama said the recent revival of Ford, GM and Chrysler, two of which were on the verge of bankruptcy, is testament to continuing progress in the industry.

“All three U.S. automakers are posting a profit for the first time since 2004,” Obama touted. “Since they emerged, the auto industry has added 76,000 jobs, that’s the good news.”

Obama acknowledged the notion that, although progress is increasingly evident, change is not materializing fast enough for American families. He praised the Senate for passing legislation Thursday that boosts aid to states in an effort to keep teachers and other public officers on states’ payroll.

“Speaker Pelosi said she’s going to bring the House back in session to pass this bill, and as soon as they do, I’m ready to sign it into law,” Obama said. “[We] need to speed our recovery so it reaches the people and places who need relief not a year from now, not six months from now, but now, right now.”

Van Hollen: No Major Legislation During 'Lame-Duck' Session

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), the third-ranking Democrat in the House, told reporters today that he does not anticipate the House voting on anything big during the brief session of Congress following this November’s elections.

“It’s very clear that there’s not gonna be major legislation during that period,” he said, citing Republican “scare-tactics” as the source of such speculation.

Nonetheless, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.), has filed a resolution, to be considered this coming Tuesday - the same day the House will vote on a bill to send emergency aid to states - that would prohibit Congress from voting during the two-month session.

Price defended his resolution on the floor of the House last week.

“Americans are sick and tired of their elected leaders making backroom deals to ram through unpopular, 2000-page bills that no one has read,” he said. “They are sick of out-of-touch politicians, and they are tired of being ignored.”

Van Hollen, however, rebuked Price’s notion, saying the decision by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to call the House back into session was motivated by the need to preserve jobs.

“We’re coming back because it makes no sense from a jobs perspective and…from the prospective of our children’s education to have an insufficient number of teachers in the classroom,” he said.

July Unemployment Rate Holds At 9.5%

Hindered by the loss of thousands of government jobs, the nation’s unemployment rate remained at 9.5% during the month of July, according to statistics released today by the U.S. Department of Labor.

While the private sector added 71,000 jobs, 202,000 government employees lost their jobs, including 143,000 temporary Census workers. State and local governments experienced layoffs as well. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) responded quickly to the report.

“After another disappointing jobs report and the resignation of one of the chief architects of the trillion-dollar ‘stimulus,’ it’s time for President Obama to listen to the American people and face up to the fact that his ‘stimulus’ policies aren’t working,” he said. “How many more times do families and small businesses have to ask ‘where are the jobs’ before President Obama changes course?”

Private sector employment has now increased by 630,000 this year, though roughly two-thirds of those jobs were added during March and April. In July, the manufacturing and healthcare industries experienced gains of 36,000 and 27,000 jobs respectively. Jobs were also added in the mining, transportation and warehousing industries.

Jobs in construction, financial activities and business all fell. In total, 14.6 million Americans remained out of work in July, with 6.6 million of them having now been jobless for nearly seven months. White House Economic Advisor Christina Romer was less than satisfied with the new figures, but said recovery could still be underway.

“We have made substantial progress from the days when employment was declining by 750,000 a month.  But, today’s employment report emphasizes just how important the additional jobs measures before Congress are,” she said. “There will likely be more bumps in the road ahead as the economy recovers. The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative.”

The White House announced early Friday morning that President Obama would make a statement on the new numbers later this afternoon.

New Report Predicts Dismal Job Growth

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said Tuesday that a new report put out by the Center for Economic and Policy Research signals the need for Congress to pass a bill he co-authored aimed at boosting the labor market.

“When I go back to my state and talk to folks, I see a lot of people really hurting and I see a lot of people who are out of work. We need this bill.”

Franken and Rep. Keith Ellison, each co-sponsors of the Senate and House versions of the Local Jobs for America Act, believe the report’s dim forecast for job growth greatly underscores the need for legislation.

The report, entitled, “The Urgent Need for Job Creation,” shows that the U.S. economy as a whole will not recoup all of the jobs lost since the start of the recession until March of 2014. Additionally, the report highlights the fact that, assuming the trend rate of growth in the labor force, the nation’s unemployment rate will not return to pre-recession levels until April 2021.

May Job Increase Only Nominal

by Miles Wolf Tamboli - Talk Radio News

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday that employment grew by 431,000 jobs in May; however, 411,000 of these jobs can be attributed to the temporary governmental employment of Census 2010 workers.

"While these are encouraging developments, we clearly have a very long way to go until the labor market is fully recovered," said Christina Romer, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers in a statement.

In the private sector, there was a marginal increase in employment - 41,000 jobs - but this is only a drop in the bucket for the 15 million still left jobless.

However, hidden in this report is a sparkle of optimism. The number of involuntary part-time workers - those who cannot find a full-time job or whose hours had been cut back - fell by about 4 percent to 8.8 million.

This new batch of information shows that, although unemployment has fallen since April, the change has only been nominal and the rate has continued to rise since 2009.

Romer also emphasized that "it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. ... Emphasis should be placed on persistent trends rather than month-to-month fluctuations."