Jobs News

Via the BBC:  US economy adds 175,000 jobs in May

The latest US non-farm payrolls show that 175,000 jobs were created last month. But the unemployment rate increased slightly to 7.6%.

[…]

May was the third month in a row that non-farm payrolls increased by less than 200,000, stoking fears that the US government austerity might be harming the economy.

The spending cuts were highlighted in the latest jobs report as the federal government cut 14,000 jobs. There were also job cuts in manufacturing.

That we continue to cut government jobs isn’t helping.  The wisdom of these policies have a certain penny wise, pound foolish logic to them.

More numbers:

In May, the number of long-term unemployed – those jobless for 27 weeks or more – was unchanged at 4.4m. These individuals accounted for 37.3% of the unemployed.

Meanwhile, March’s job creation figure was revised to 142,000 from 138,000, and April’s to 149,000 from 165,000.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, , ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. Caj says:

    The jobs number could be a lot better had those time wasting fools in Congress worked with President Obama and get that jobs bill passed he put forward over a year ago! No, they haven’t got time to waste on trivial things like getting people jobs. Far more important to spend time on nonsensical so called scandals and never ending ridiculous investigations! The country should be outraged but they need to show their outrage toward the right people here. It’s not the Obama administration, it’s the lazy, do nothing Congress!

  2. fred says:

    I totally support immigration reform, but the most pressing problem in this country is unemployment and jobs for Americans. Pres Obama’s job program has been a dismal failure for minorities, especially Black Americans. Immigration reform will also disproportionally affect their employment prospects, so I say get a jobs program for minorities first before immigration reform. History will not be kind on how Pres Obama addressed the education and job prospects of Black Americans while he was President. He still has time to fix this disgraceful and outrageous oversight.

  3. al-Ameda says:

    @fred:

    History will not be kind on how Pres Obama addressed the education and job prospects of Black Americans while he was President. He still has time to fix this disgraceful and outrageous oversight.

    You guys love class warfare. Unemployment has traditionally been lowest among Blacks. Also, statistics show that unemployment is lowest among those people who have a college degree, I’m guessing that among Blacks many still do not have college degrees.

    What do you suggest that Obama should have done about this – give tax credits to the car elevator industry?

  4. superdestroyer says:

    @al-Ameda:

    I think you mean unemployment has been highest among blacks (higher than the unemployment rate for Asians, whites, or Hispanics.

    Also, do you really think that if sent more blacks of third and fourth tier universities and lower standards low enough so that they would graduate, that somehow their unemployment rate would go down. What part of the economy has lots of open jobs and needs graduates from third and fourth tier universities.
    The future is that blacks will be squeezed out from the bottom by Hispanics and from the top by whites who are better at credential-ism.

    Of course, as the U.S. becomes a one party state, I suspect that the Democrats will push for an expansion of quotas, affirmative action, and set asides to keep blacks happy with the policy of open borders and unlimited immigration.

  5. al-Ameda says:

    @superdestroyer:

    Also, do you really think that if sent more blacks of third and fourth tier universities and lower standards low enough so that they would graduate, that somehow their unemployment rate would go down.

    I do not believe that I implied that we should lower college standards – did I? Where did you get that? Statistics show that college educated people have a lower unemployment rate than those who have not matriculated. Are you saying that Blacks cannot attend college or graduate unless standards are lowered? I certainly do not believe that, nor did I imply that.