The August jobs report is bad. Noel Sheppard:
The Labor Department released its highly anticipated jobs report for August Friday, and the numbers were lousy.And a PS from Patrick Brennan:
Although the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent, that's because another 368,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force.
This brought the labor force participation rate down to 63.5 percent, the lowest it's been since June 1979.
Meanwhile, the number of people not in the labor force increased by 581,000 to a staggering 88.9 million.
Making matters worse, the number of people out of the workforce that want a job increase 403,000 to almost 7 million.
That's right - almost 7 million Americans are currently not in the workforce that want to work.
These are all terrible numbers for a president seeking reelection.
The previous two months were also revised down: June’s jobs number from 64,000 to 45,000, and July’s from 163,000 to 141,000.As usual.
Watch for Paul Ryan's comments coming up soon on CNBC. And keep an eye on @JimPethokoukis.
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Update: Here's Pethokoukis's analysis: The awful, awful August jobs report
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They will get it under 8% by the election. Sends tingles up my leg.
ReplyDeleteAnd who was president in June of 1979?
ReplyDeleteJames Earl Carter.
I seem to remember a fellow named Reagan who inherited that mess and managed to clean it up in less than 4 years...