News
WSJ | Canada Jobless Rate Rises Unexpectedly
The economy added just 2,300 net new jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6% from 7.5%, Statistics Canada said Friday.
CNN Money | Big drop in unemployment rate for blacks
The unemployment rate for blacks fell more than 2 percentage points last month to its lowest level since March 2009.
WSJ | Jobs Power Market Rebound
The U.S. economy added more jobs in January than in any month since early last year, pushing down the unemployment rate to a level not seen since President Barack Obama's first full month in office.
Econ Comments & Analysis
FOX News | From relief to despair: Varying views of jobs data
The headline numbers mask vast disparities — from the New Yorker thrilled to have found a catering job to the Indianapolis truck driver forced to take a 40 percent pay cut to work again.
Investors | As Obama Crows, Real Story Is 10.5 Mil Jobs Deficit
Of course it's good news that 243,000 new jobs were created in January, shaving the unemployment rate to 8.3%. But thanks to massive policy errors by the White House, we're still way below where we should be.
Washington Times | Obama’s bogus jobs data
The White House hyped the news Friday that January payrolls had risen by 243,000. The hitch is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also dropped 1.2 million from the calculated workforce.
Real Clear Markets | Another Unemployment Rate Fairy Tale
The BLS reported that the closely followed "headline" (U-3) unemployment rate fell to 8.3% in January. This represented a decline of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month's level and the lowest level since February 2009. So, why isn't this good news?
Blogs
WSJ | Did Economy Really Create 500,000 Jobs?
According to one little-followed measure, the economy created nearly 500,000 jobs last month — about twice as many as the government’s official figure of 243,000.
Calculated Risk | Employment Summary, Part Time Workers, and Unemployed over 26 Weeks
This was a solid report and well above expectations. However there is still a long ways to go for a healthy labor market with solid wage gains.
WSJ | The Hiring Hare Will Soon Morph Into a Tortoise
Can the labor markets maintain such hippity-hoppity vigor? It seems unlikely. The drags from the euro zone, housing and deleveraging are still weighing on growth prospects.
Calculated Risk | Unemployment Rate, Participation Rate, Jobs added
There were some revisions this morning to previous employment reports. This included the annual benchmark revision to state unemployment insurance (UI) records, and benchmarking the population controls to the 2010 Census data and an update to seasonal factors.
WSJ | What’s Behind the Unemployment Rate Drop?
Under the government’s definitions, people only count as unemployed when they’re actively looking for work. So when the unemployment rate drops, it could mean that unemployed people found jobs, or it could mean that they gave up looking for work.
Daily Capitalist | Unions Continue To Drive Themselves Out Of Business
It is good news for Americans that labor union membership fell to an historic low in 2011—11.8% of the wage and salary workforce. There are now only 14.8 million union members in the U.S.
Political Calculations | Teens Still "Most Screwed Over"
Teens between the ages of 16 and 19 only saw their numbers increase from December 2011 and January 2012 by just 2,000, even with the statistical adjustment!
