Financial Times — Jobs data dash recovery hopes
When the May jobs report came out, some people were shocked to see unemployment up over 9 percent and climbing. The concern was that combined with the people who have been unable to find a job for long enough to be dropped from the rolls, the newly fired added up to a large enough number to create a perpetual motion recession in our consumer-based economy that could last for months.
The Obama administration pooh-poohed the worriers as chicken littles. The number of people being fired was shrinking and while many people already laid off still couldn’t find work, one of the first signs of a turnaround is always the decline in the number of the newly unemployed. The stimulus, they said, was starting to work, but would be ramped up.
But the new numbers – with job losses above what they were in October and companies scaling back on hours for remaining workers – put the lie to that notion. The president scrubbed the first day of his getaway to Camp David to stay and fret over the economy and the White House changed its official posture to one of concern and empathy for the unemployed. The stimulus, they said, though, was still working.
