(After Steve Benen)
The good news about the economy is that we added 162,000 jobs, most of them permanent, in March. The bad news is that the average job search now takes longer than seven months. Unable to find new work, 212,000 people could exhaust their unemployment benefits this week.
After Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) blocked an extension of unemployment benefits, lawmakers broke for the Easter recess knowing that checks would stop going out. Cue the recriminations, with Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) leading the way:
"Before the Senate adjourned for the Easter Recess, Senate Republicans and Senate Democrats had agreed to pass a one-week extension of unemployment benefits that was fully paid for. Unfortunately, the House Democrat leadership said no, and then Congress left town knowing the benefits would expire. Earlier, Senate Democrats voted to kill a one-month extension that was fully offset and did not add to the deficit.
"We could have stayed in Washington to resolve the issue and see that these benefits are extended and paid for, but it seems the Democrats thought it was more important to catch their planes. I am disappointed that the Democrats continue to play political games to avoid paying for these benefits that are so important to the many struggling families across our nation who rely on them to make ends meet while they search for work. Clearly, the Democrats don't want to help the unemployed unless they can increase the deficit while they're doing it."
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Rachel, PLEASE set this issue straight tonight on your show!!! Ann Coulter reported on Fox News last night that it is Pres. Obama's fault the unemployement benefits were not extended. Her commentary was WAY off base!!! She even went so far as to say it is going to take another Republican president to get us out of this economic mess. HA HA HA....wasn't it a Republican president that PUT us in the mess.
Absolutely wrong, People seem to forget that the economy was already crashing in Bill Clintons finale 2 years in office. But some how it became Bush's fault. I will never understand Democrats. Tell the same lie often enough and it becomes a truth I guess.
Might want to check your facts on that. But the reality is, the President does not control the economy. Blaming Obama is just as off-base as blaming Bush. The one metric that is telling, however, is what shape the government till is in. Clinton left office with a surplus. Bush left with a huge deficit.
I am one of those whose benefits got exhausted. I went to a job fair this morning, but it wasn't that great. It was one of those be a financial adviser or sell Amway products and get your own contacts marketing scheme. The clueless out in Wash DC have absolutely no idea what it's really like. And I am not one of those lazy loafers, I want to work and earn my money honestly.
Are you willing to take ANY job or are you holding out for that $60K+ job?
You know you could have be retraining in a higher demand career field and still get unemployment when you had the chance.
unemployment wasn't meant to be paid the entire time you are looking for or training for a job. Though that would be the democrats plan. There's a reason it is a limited time benefit.
The point that is not shown in this article is that Democrats took over control of the Hosue and Senate in 2006. Gee, that seems to be when the numbers start to nosedive. Since Congress is responsible for spending and budgets, wonder what happen ...................... Try the fact that from campaigning through the last two years of the Bush administration, the Democrats talked the economy down and creating the lack of confidence that the working public needs. Let's put blame where it belongs.
And what is your point? If we are looking for the cause of the recession, how does it help to point out that the dems had the house and senate during both the recession AND the recovery? And you might also point out that the Dems did not have a veto proof majority under Bush, but the economy did not improve until we got a democratic president, allowing the house, senate and president to work together - but I guess you will ignore that because it doesn't fit your bias.
Good point Tip. However, the left is always quick to point out "perceived blame" for anything that isn't going their way, even if the cause is really of no concern to the immediate problem.
Also, if you call this an improvement, then you must have been really excited when Clinton and the republicans were able to create a skyrocketing economy back in the 90s!
Maddow's "bikini graph" only shows the loss/gain of jobs. The biggest reason the graph shows improvement after January 09 (after obama took office) is that there weren't as many jobs to lose in following months.
If you look closely at the graph, you'll see that the total number of jobs lost is very close to each other. The only difference as I said is jobs were lost faster up front because there were more to lose.
Is there a way we can see the jobs figures further back than this graph shows? The one thing that I think has been lost is the jump in the figures when you put them in absolute terms. Pres. Obama has taken a -799k monthly jobs loss, and turned it into a +162k monthly jobs gain in 13 months. That means an increase in the monthly rate of 941,000 jobs per month.
I'd be really curious if we've seen the jobs per month figures jump up that fast before. I know there's context, like if he had started at zero instead of -779k, I'm sure that jump wouldn't have been possible - we might have run out of people looking for work. But I'm just curious if movement like that has been seen on this particular data point - historically.
The uptick I believe is due to the injection of cash into the economy via the stimulus bill and all the unemployment and government assistance measures that the federal and state governments have enacted.
We can't really say that this is a sustainable incline (actually it seems to be see-sawing, maybe due to the extreme winter in 10') or that the bleeding of jobs won't go away without further stimulus programs, the Fed keeping interest rates low and pumping shadow money into wall street.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=apx7XNLnZZlc
Hi Metal,
Here is an article which will help answer where did the jobs go and why they will not come back unless outsourcing is prohibited. Most of the jobs you see in that graph are low income jobs and while it is better than nothing it offers very little hope of recovery anytime soon.
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/where_jobs_go.htm
Looking at this graph the only good thing is the gain of 160,000 jobs last month. However at least 1/3 of these jobs are seasonal jobs created this time every year with the government census and tax preparation from companies such as H&R Block. Based on this graph in the last two years Millions of jobs were lost until the last couple of months and 160,000 new jobs at this time of year is hardly anything to get excited about. Hopefully rising gas costs and all these bailouts will not cripple our floundering economy any further.
Permanent jobs gained = 123,000. It's a beginning.
The right wing’s favorite fiscal policy of “trickle-down economics” is not just merely “unfettered, run amok capitalism”, it’s had a devastating effect on the socio-economic disparity in our country where the income and wealth inequality between the rich and the poor grew exponentially. Let’s not forget that these right-wingers also passionately and shamelessly support exorbitant tax-breaks for the rich. No amount of greed is enough for these people. They incessantly whine about the so-called “big government”?! Adam Smith's notion of the invisible hand requires specific checks and balances for capitalism to work for everyone. Not run amok by unfettered corporate greed resulting in numerous instances of economic downturns observed and documented for more than a century. Supply side economic policies based on laissez faire have historically always resulted in the collapse of our markets, disruption to commerce and manufacturing as well as undue human suffering in America. By the way, there are no such things as free markets. All markets are regulated in one form or another. The question we should be asking is; what form of regulation would yield stable long term prosperity. We should keep in mind that private enterprise and government are symbiotic in nature. Keynesian economics has been the savior of capitalism as was clearly demonstrated in the post Great-Depression decades. Strong middle class yields a robust and a stable economy. Implementing supply side policies by way of doling out astronomical tax breaks to the wealthy 1% as well as deregulating plethora of big business practices upon which greedy corporate fat cats run amok, have been at the core of our present economic woes.
President Obama took office when we were shedding jobs at about a pace of 750,000 jobs per month and at an unemployment rate of about 8% and climbing. American Recovery Act (Stimulus) and President Obama’s other economic initiatives collectively stopped the bleeding around November 2009 as depicted by the chart provided in the link below.
http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Ts8GWVA
It appears that we just may have turned the corner on the net jobs gained, in March. We have a long way to go, however it appears that we’re on the right path to recovery. The input data for the chart was obtained from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website. Also, let’s not dismiss the fact that, Republicans controlled the White House and the Congress between 2000 and 2006. When Democrats took control of the Congress in 2006, they did not hold a majority that could stop a Republican filibuster or a presidential veto for that matter. Consequently, no legislation that could protect the hard-working Americans against Republican greed was plausible during this period.
The total of 96 months that Bush was in office, the net job gain during this period was 1,080,000 which amounted to only 11,250 jobs per month. Pretty darn pathetic but, “without data it’s just another opinion”!
Now, on the face of all that, we have Republicans showboating and blocking unemployment as well as other critical benefits to burdened American families who endure the devastating consequences of corporate greed.
"Only when the sense of the pain of others begins does man begin." - Yevgeny Yevtushenko
Peace.
Government spending and tax policy can create a positive environment for economic growth, but in the end it's consumer confidence and innovation in business that spur the growth of jobs and the economy. Historically, Dems have a better record than Republicans. I have my fingers crossed that month by month through the spring and summer, the present trend continues in the same upward direction--ideally at an accellerated rate.
I get a little annoyed when people say that this gain in jobs is not noteworthy. Even if 1/3 of the jobs were due to seasonal hiring, those people have found temporary relief from being stuck at home feeling helpless about being unemployed. And, most importantly, 108,000 people have found permanent employment!
RECOVERY! Please, there is no indication that anything this President and Congress did has done anything to help a recovery. By now, we should have been so far beyond the downturn of 2003-2007 just through the normal cycle of the economy.
Jobs, we got no stinkin jobs, just spin and a mirage. Meanwhile leadership fails to extend unemployment and goes home. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, blinders.
Translation - home sittin by th pool with patches over the eye's (reference to pirate quite aprapo I think), ear plugs, tounge tied with no guts to speak up. Government is broken and so is our economy when rep's vote faith vs consitituents wishes breech of contract (platform ran under to get elected) and separation of church and state be damned.
And jobs, economy, the spin. Get real and admit Pres. Obama has all the right to remind us who created the mess and stop being such hipocrits saying he needs to stop reminding or stop blaiming the prior admin if your guilty of the same. If they need remindin just re-publish this link next time Dirty Dick Cheney or 'Boner' (yeah, I know, spelling) wants to cry foul http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/press/2003/fs_bushrecession073103.pdf
Angry Gen-Jones'er
def: A 'boomer' cohert #2 circa born 1955-1964. Translated loosely as also sore on both ends do a shortage of government rep's shortage of K-Y to hand out. From behind it's the 70's-80's, oil embargo's, rampant inflation, mortgage rates upwards of 12%, etc., etc. and in the face circa 2007-present as our potential for the 'golden years' have exploded bailing out Wall Street and bankers domestic and foreign, who have to explain to their children, who've been forced to move back home why the middle's world is all f*** up right now and how we tried our best and failed, but don't despair. How can they not I ask myself? Don't call me a 'Boomer' unless your referring to the sound made round the world when our immediate future, hopes and dreams for ourselves and our children was blown up or I'm likely to do the unprofessional thing and punch you straight in the nose.
Hey Im a pretty independent voter. But lets remember, Obama has a really crappy time to be president. Two wars, a recession, terrorism ,and oil spill, and financial and health care reform. Geez. We have been a country of do-nothingers for as long as I can remember. Nixon said we have to get off the dependence of foreign oil. After the exxon valdez congress ordered double hulls on tankers...starting in 2015!!! We dont fix anything because politics is so polorized. They talk all day but do very little. I do think Obama has been too centrist and has pandered to both sides but by God, he has rolled up his sleeves and attempted to ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT AMERICAS DECLINE IN SO MANY AREAS. Lets give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Not a free pass, but the benefit of the doubt. He cares and is trying. The last president didnt fix any messes in 8 years, just got us in some real messy ones. Facts are stubborn things. I hope our President succeeds and the American people rally!!! U-S-A!!!!
Please update monthly, I need this up to July 2010 to tweet to people who do not believe W made 3 mil. jobs in 8 years and Obama made 3 mil. jobs in 1.5 years.
I doubt anyone in the lingering massively high unemployment bracket is going to cheer his phantom improvements.
I'm so pleased to see the "bikini" graph make another appearance on TRMS. The voter information effort needs to be ramped up by the entire Democratic Party.
This is an excellent graph, required viewing for my wingnut correspondents. Rachel, HELLOOOO, is there an archive of graphs that we could go to, such as TRMS Graph Archive? There are so many good ones, and a graph is worth a thousand words!