Elite Media: "Unemployment Unexpectedly Drops". What Pure B.S.
This happens every year. Hiring picks up in the retail and service sector for the Christmas season. There is no way that this can be unexpected, but the implication is that "Obama's policies are finally working".
Next month the reports on consumer spending will show that they went up in December with the spin that it is all because Obama is great, but the truth is that consumer spending always goes up in December. In February and early March the elite media will say that "unemployment went up unexpectedly" and "consumer spending dropped unexpectedly". Why? Holiday help will get laid off and the credit card bills will start coming in.
Another reason that unemployment has dropped unexpectedly is that a reported 315,000 people have given up looking for a job. That artificially lowers the government unemployment number.
Job gains in the U.S. picked up last month and the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to the lowest level since March 2009, a decline augmented by the departure of Americans from the labor force.
Payrolls climbed 120,000, after a revised 100,000 increase in October, with more than half the hiring coming from retailers and temporary help agencies, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey called for a 125,000 gain. The jobless rate declined to 8.6 percent from 9 percent.
“It’s good news, not great news,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Inc. in Lexington, Massachusetts, whose forecast matched the survey median. “The labor market is gradually healing.”
What nonsense, because way down deep in the article, they finally tell you the truth [Note - reporters know that most people never read beyond the 5th paragraph in most any article]:
Employment at service-providers increased 126,000 in November, including a 50,000 gain in retail trade as companies began hiring for the holiday shopping season. The number of temporary workers increased 22,300.
Macy's, the second-biggest U.S. department-store chain, increased mostly part-time staff by 4 percent for the November-December shopping season. See’s Candies Inc., a chocolate maker owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., said it would add 5,500 mostly temporary workers.
Still, factory payroll growth slowed and construction employment dropped. Government payrolls decreased by 20,000 in November, including a 16,000 decline on the state and local levels.
More on "Unexpected"
Enjoy this piece from my old college blog where I had some fun with the elite media economists where they declared every piece of bad news "unexpected" for two years while they were spinning positive for Obama:
Indeed. According to the elite media “most economists” were surprised by month after month after month of unexpected, unexpected, unexpected, unexpected, unexpected bad economic news for the last two years. Of course to those who were paying attention it wasn't unexpected at all.
In February or March we will be told that factory orders for consumer goods are up "unexpectedly" which is a positive sign that Obama is the best president ever. The truth is that it will be the result of totally expected inventory restocking after the holiday season.
Jobless claims are over 400,000 again this week. Last month "Hope" was alive because new claims had dropped below 400,000 to 397,000, which is statistically insignificant:
Fewer people applied for unemployment benefits last week, a hopeful sign that the job market might be picking up.
The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped 9,000 to a seasonally adjusted 397,000, the lowest level in five weeks. It's only the third time since April that applications have fallen below 400,000.
Were saved! Most every week claims are above 400,000 it is unexpected and each time below it is because we have the hopeful if not smoking hot economy. Gimme a break.