Unemployment rate dips to 8.3 percent
By The Associated Press
This article was published February 3, 2012 at 7:40 a.m.
PHOTO BY AP / BEBETO MATTHEWS
In this Jan. 25, 2012 photo, Daniela Silvero,left, an admissions officer at ASA College, discuss job opportunities with Patrick Rosarie, who is seeking a job in IT, during JobEXPO's job fair, in New York.
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WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate fell for the fifth consecutive month after a surge of January hiring.
The Labor Department says employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the most in nine months. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in December, the lowest it's been in nearly three years.
Employers have added an average of 201,000 jobs per month in the past three months. That’s 50,000 more jobs per month than the economy averaged in each month last year.
The January jobs report was filled with other encouraging data and revisions. Hiring was widespread across many high-paying industries. Pay increased. And the economy added 200,000 more jobs in 2011 than first thought.
Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
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Comments on: Unemployment rate dips to 8.3 percent
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Populist says... February 3, 2012 at 8:44 a.m.
This is bad news for the Republicans who want us to fail.
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djigoo says... February 3, 2012 at 9:44 a.m.
Tell me again why the GOP thinks we should return to the failed policies which got us in this mess in the first place?
Welcome to your second term, President Obama!
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T6 says... February 3, 2012 at 10:16 a.m.
You Obots shouldn't get so giddy just yet.
This from ZeroHedge, using BLS data, the US civilian non-institutional population was 242,269 in January, an increase of 1.7 million month over month: apply the long-term average labor force participation rate of 65.8% to this number (because as chart 2 below shows, people are not retiring as the popular propaganda goes: in fact labor participation in those aged 55 and over has been soaring as more and more old people have to work overtime, forget retiring), and you get 159.4 million: that is what the real labor force should be. The BLS reported one? 154.4 million: a tiny 5 million difference. Then add these people who the BLS is purposefully ignoring yet who most certainly are in dire need of labor and/or a job to the 12.758 million reported unemployed by the BLS and you get 17.776 million in real unemployed workers. What does this mean? That using just the BLS denominator in calculating the unemployed rate of 154.4 million, the real unemployment rate actually rose in January to 11.5%. Compare that with the BLS reported decline from 8.5% to 8.3%. It also means that the spread between the reported and implied unemployment rate just soared to a fresh 30 year high of 3.2%. And that is how with a calculator and just one minute of math, one strips away countless hours of BLS propaganda.
zerohedge. com/news/implied-unemployment-rate-rises-115-spread-propaganda-number-surges-30-year-high
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Ran2133 says... February 3, 2012 at 2:02 p.m.
One should expect the figures put out by the Labor Department to be 'skewed' in favor of the current administration: after all he appointed the Secretary of Labor! Anyone who believes such drivel does so because they they want to believe it, not because it is accurate!! After all, to be accurate would make the occupant of the Oval Office look bad in an election year!!
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NickieD says... February 3, 2012 at 2:38 p.m.
Yeah! And if it the numbers are right then the GOPers would look stupid (as usual) and the President would look good.
Trying to make good news look bad and bad news look good (as they did under Bush) is the Greedy Obstructionist Poverty-creators speciality.
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T6 says... February 3, 2012 at 3:13 p.m.
Yeah but if the numbers are wrong then that would mean your dear leader is lying and manipulating again. That would be no surprise to many.
zerohedge. com/news/trimtabs-explains-why-todays-very-very-suspicious-nfp-number-really-down-29-million-past-2-mont
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Aimee says... February 3, 2012 at 6:10 p.m.
T6 & Ran:
*
The stock market supposedly posted its gains today based on the good news... Guess they don't know how to use a calculator as well both of you do..!!!!
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Reason says... February 3, 2012 at 6:15 p.m.
The unemployment rate for returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans dropped from 15.2 to 9.1 percent; 6 percentage points! Thanks to Obama's Vow to Hire Heroes Act!
Things are looking better the republicans fear.
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ToGQ4U says... February 3, 2012 at 6:35 p.m.
Ha ha ha it's a election year fools! Of course the numbers are going to look good. Can you not see the pixie dust.
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NickieD says... February 3, 2012 at 6:49 p.m.
I think the Pixie Dust is in your eyes...
I suppose that is the employment rate falls just .01% everyone will howels of glee.
Limbaugh said it all. "I hope all of his policies fail."
What a patriot! The GOP patriots would be ecstatic to hear the country's economy failing and unemployment rising.
Do we really want that type of illegitimate sons to take over the reins?
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T6 says... February 3, 2012 at 7:01 p.m.
Man, I can't believe you Obots can be so blind. How can you have 2.5 million less jobs in January and the unemployment rate go down?
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RonalFos says... February 4, 2012 at 10:33 a.m.
T6, how about stating your source for the 2.5 million fewer jobs in January statement.
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ToGQ4U says... February 4, 2012 at 12:14 p.m.
From what I understand those are raw number by the Department of Labor before the seasonal adjustments. Seasonal adjustments equals the messaging of the numbers. Also the ones that have fallen off the unemployment benefits are not counted in those number, but counted in the employed numbers.
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Face it folks, Obama is going to use every trick in the book to finish destroying this country.
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Do your homework.
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ToGQ4U says... February 4, 2012 at 12:26 p.m.
On to "Up 243,000, payrolls top best forecasts"
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Reason says... February 4, 2012 at 1:29 p.m.
You guys just can't take good news for our country! And you are really getting desperate to pull data from a conspiracy website that was written by a ghost writer.
.
No, it is not seasonal messaging ... At the beginning of a new year and it is EVERY YEAR and not just an Obama year, the population is updated... The Census Bureau updated the population from the 2000 census to the 2010 census. The Census Bureau does not go back and correct previous months but it is document and it moves forward. Again, not Obama year but the beginning of EVERY YEAR!
The labor force and employment-population ratio were each reduced by .3 percent. But since republicans do not want good news for the country and everything good is bad... It is a waste of time to calculate it.
It is calculated here:
bls. gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
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ToGQ4U says... February 4, 2012 at 4:34 p.m.
And the census was last taken when?
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ToGQ4U says... February 4, 2012 at 4:36 p.m.
Oh "Up 243,000, payrolls top best forecasts" is the title (head line) in today s paper. One should look into it.
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T6 says... February 4, 2012 at 5:46 p.m.
zerohedge. com/news/trimtabs-explains-why-todays-very-very-suspicious-nfp-number-really-down-29-million-past-2-mont
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Packman says... February 4, 2012 at 6:02 p.m.
Wow, coming in February this is really bad news for BH Obama. The American economy is much like a pulled bow string. It stretches and stretches and stretches until it finally releases and then undergoes many minor back and forths until it finally stablilizes and once again begins its outward pull. Today was a minor forward motion which will be offset by a backward pull this summer and fall, just before the election. Regardless, the economy will not be strong enough by this fall to offset gas prices and the effects of Obamacare. Gun control will be an issue this summer as well, which will kill BH Obama's union support.
Hey Populist - I thought you always considered yourself a "moderate"? What's this "us" business? Were you lying then or are you lying now?
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T6 says... February 4, 2012 at 6:27 p.m.
Packman, Populist's doesn't consider herself an R or MR anymore.
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Populist says... February 5, 2012 at 7:09 a.m.
By "us" I mean all of America. I am a fan of President Obama because he understands the power of education, and he understands that economic vitality in this country is tied to the economic well-being of the middle class. I do not agree with him or the Democrats on everything. I have written to my Democratic congressman and Senators complaining about their failure to cut certain federal programs. I have been active in both political parties. I've been described as a hodge-podge of liberal and conservative views. I had the pleasure of chatting with former RNC Chairman Michael Steele at the airport one day and discussed why I had left the Republican Party. Steele said, "you are just an old-fashioned populist." That really is an oversimplification of my views, but the moniker stuck.
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Tortitude says... February 5, 2012 at 12:36 p.m.
If the employment numbers are so strong as the DC crowd claims, then why are we further extending unemployment benefits? Why is Bernanke keeping interest rates at 0% through 2014? The real test concerning these suddenly extraordinary numbers is to see if all or at least some of our unemployed friends now have jobs.
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Reason says... February 5, 2012 at 4:21 p.m.
The republicans cannot handle good news for this country! The economy added 257,000 private sector jobs last month. Manufacturing added 50,000 jobs with a total of 235,000 manufacturing over the pass year. Also, new growth in construction of 52,000 jobs over the last 2 months. And 3.7 million private sector jobs were added over the last 23 months. Bad news for the GOP but good news for working people and this country that paid the price for the 8 years of the republican reign, who trashed and crashed this economy for the greed of the few.
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Tortitude says... February 5, 2012 at 8:56 p.m.
It's not a question of Republicans not wanting good news. It's that no self-respecting Republican, Democrat or professional jack*ss can adopt the suddenly wonderful numbers as for real. The proof might lie in the numbers where the feds are taking in more payroll based tax dollars. But there is a suspension of the payroll tax in large part, so there is no accurate number to rely on is there? I'd like to hear what the numbers are for the payroll services like PayChex and ADP. It's election year folks.
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