Employers Add 297,000 Jobs in December

A surprise surge in private-sector employment last month to its highest level on record provided the most bullish signal in months that the U.S. economy is on the mend.

Private employers added 297,000 jobs in December, triple the median estimate by economists and up from the gain of 92,000 in November, an ADP Employer Services report, whose data goes back to 2000, showed on Wednesday. More at Reuters

Obama Speaks on Jobs Report Nov. 5

Over the past few months, 1 million jobs have been added to the economy. There has been private sector job growth for 10 straight months. See the BLS report here.
We've now seen 4 months of private sector job growth above 100,000, which is the first time we've seen this kind of increase in more than four years.
And look, we just elected a bunch of republicans because Americans were too impatient (or so they said.)
Obama says we need to start making things as opposed to just consuming things.

Watch Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, who says unemployment insurance needs to be extended. Many people will lose their insurance at the end of the month. Ha! Now that republicans have more power that is highly unlikely. Republicans fought hard against the extensions we've already had.

The economy added 151,000 jobs in October, the Labor Department reported Friday, an improvement over September, when the economy lost 41,000 jobs. That was much better than the 68,000 gain that economists surveyed by CNNMoney.com were expecting, and the best overall number since May. CNN Money

Obama Speaks on August Jobs Report Video

August Jobs Report Better Than Expected

About 40,000 jobs were expected.

Private employers hired more workers than expected in August, lifting hopes for the weak U.S. economy, but the nation’s unemployment rate rose for the first time in four months, suggesting the economy will struggle to grow through the rest of the year.

Private employers added a total of 67,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department’s August jobs report released Friday. That number was below the amount of jobs needed to keep up with population growth, but was better than expected. Both July and June’s private-sector job figures were upwardly revised. msnbc

Christina Romer gives the rundown on her last day at the White House -- no new stimulus is being considered:

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Obama's Schedule Sept. 3

Obama will remark on the jobs report for August and then head out to Camp David. On Monday, Labor Day, Obama heads to Milwaukee for a celebration of the working folk.

10:00 AM	The President delivers a statement to the press on the monthly jobs numbers Pre-set 9:10AM – Final Gather 9:40AM – North Doors of the Palm Room Open Press
1:30 PM	The President departs the South Lawn en route Camp David South Lawn Open Press

Obama Speaks on June Jobs Report July 2

Private employers still added jobs, even though the number was smaller than expected. Apparently, Census jobs don't matter when they add to the economy, but they do matter when they take away from the economy.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls fell by 125,000, but that was distorted by a 225,000 drop in temporary Census workers. The more closely watched number of private-sector jobs rose by 83,000. The unemployment rate dropped to 9.5% from 9.7% in May.

While the jobs numbers were worse than the consensus produced in a Dow Jones Newswires survey, which predicted a 110,000 drop in the headline number and 110,000 gain in private-sector jobs, markets were gearing up for an especially bad result in the wake of a slew of other weak data that have fanned fears of a second half slowdown in the U.S. economy. With an average of 150,000 jobs per month added throughout the first half, the economy was still adding enough jobs to cover new entrants into the work force, albeit at a pedestrian pace. WSJ

Obama is speaking from Andrews Air Force Base. He's on his way to Charleston, W.V. for Byrd's memorial.

Obama Speaks at K. Neal International Trucks Video

Whenever the jobs report comes out, Obama typically visits a company and speaks about the jobs report. This time, Obama and Biden were at K. Neal in Maryland. Obama is now headed for Louisiana, where he'll spend the rest of the day. See his schedule today here.

Romer Speaks on Five Straight Months of Job Growth

The trajectory of job growth is up, but the pace of growth is slow. Most of the 431,000 jobs for May were Census jobs, and in many people's minds, those jobs don't count because they're government jobs, even though Census workers could buy things and add to our economy because they had a job.

Obama Speaks on Jobs Report May 7

Full video:
Obama doesn't have any other scheduled public events today. Employers added 290,000 jobs in April.

This is the largest monthly increase in four years, Obama said. We've had job growth four months in a row. The unemployment rate went from 9.7% to 9.9%, which means more people are out looking for jobs again. We saw the largest increase in manufacturing employment since 1998, he said.

On the Dow plunge yesterday, Obama said regulators are looking into it and they will offer a public report of what happened.

Obama to Speak on the Economy in North Carolina April 2

Obama in Savannah

Update April 2: Watch video of the event here.

Tomorrow the March jobs report comes out, so perhaps this event in Charlotte is tied to the jobs report. North Carolina has a 11.2% unemployment rate. Obama will visit Celgard (see below) at 11:45 am eastern and speak at 11:55 am eastern. It will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov and it's likely to also be streamed at MSNBC.com.

The local newspaper doesn't have much on Obama's appearance, except for the fact that tea parties will be protesting, which isn't unusual. They protest every speech Obama gives.

Obama will be visiting Celgard, a Charlotte company that makes lithium battery parts:

Obama Speaks on Job Losses and Clean Energy Video

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The cold hard reality: Americans aren't trained for jobs that are growing:

There's a major hurdle to the U.S. economy's recovery: The mismatch between the skills held by the millions of people who are losing jobs and the expertise needed for the few jobs that are being created.

The nation lost 53,000 construction jobs during December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, the lion's share of the net 85,000 jobs lost last month. It also shed 27,000 manufacturing jobs. Taken together, those two sectors have shed about 3.7 million jobs since the recession began in December of 2007.

By contrast, areas that saw job growth during the month included health services, which added around 22,000 jobs in December, and professional sectors such as architecture and engineering services, computer systems design and administrative and support services. Read more at MSNBC

Christina Romer Says Job Growth Expected by Spring

2009 closed with a disappointing jobs report, but most are confident a turnaround is imminent:

But even with the poor end to the year, the pace of job losses has slowed dramatically from the beginning of 2009. There were 741,000 jobs lost in January, the worst total in 60 years.

Some economists said that this broader trend is more important than the bigger-than-expected losses in December.

"I don't see this as a setback. We're still on the right trend here," said Tig Gilliam, CEO of Adecco Group North America, a unit of the world's largest employment staffing firm.

Gilliam said he's expecting job growth to resume in the first three months of this year, perhaps as early as February, and that gains of about 200,000 to 300,000 jobs a month by the middle of this year are possible. CNN

Unemployment Rate Stays Flat as More Jobs Lost in December

Unemployment is flat at 10%. Here comes the republican wig-out (which would've come no matter what the jobs report). People aren't looking for work:

Lack of confidence in the economic recovery led employers to shed a more-than-expected 85,000 jobs in December even as the unemployment rate held at 10 percent. The rate would have been higher if more people had been looking for work instead of leaving the labor force because they can't find jobs.

The sharp drop in the work force — 661,000 fewer people — showed that more of the jobless are giving up on their search for work. Once people stop looking for jobs, they are no longer counted among the unemployed.
....
Many analysts had hoped Friday's report would show the economy gained jobs for the first time in two years. While the revised figures found an increase in November, it was tiny. Job openings remain far too few.

"One word sums it up: Disappointment," said Jonathan Basile, an economist at Credit Suisse.

Referring to the drop in the labor force, Basile said, "that tells me that Main Street doesn't believe there's a recovery yet, because they're not out looking for jobs yet." MSNBC

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Obama's Schedule Jan. 8 2010

Update: See video of Obama's speech here.

Update: Obama will now speak at 3 pm est.

Update: Obama's remarks today will be about more stimulus going to green jobs: CBS' MarkKnoller:

$2.3-billion in tax credits for 183 clean energy manufacturing projects in 43 states.

Obama's remarks will be live streamed at WhiteHouse.gov. The jobs report disappointed, but we'll still get the republican wig-out.

Obama will speak to the press at 2:40 pm eastern today. I'm not sure what the topic is, but I suspect it may be about the jobs report coming out today. If the report is good, we can look forward to the GOP Wig-out. Wahoo! Republicans DO NOT want to see job growth. That would mean Obama's plan is working.

Bill Extending Unemployment Benefits and Homebuyer Credit Goes to Obama

First-time homebuyers have been getting tax credits of up to $8,000 since January as part of the economic stimulus package enacted earlier this year. But with the program scheduled to expire at the end of November, the House voted 403-12 Thursday to extend and expand the tax credit to include many buyers who already own homes. The Senate approved the measure Wednesday, and the White House said President Barack Obama would sign it Friday.

Buyers who have owned their current homes at least five years would be eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500. First-time homebuyers - or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years - would still get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers in both groups have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30.
...
The homebuyers tax credit is one of two tax breaks totaling more than $21 billion that was included in a bill extending unemployment benefits for those without a job for more than a year. The other would let companies now losing money recoup taxes they paid on profits earned in the previous five years.
WaPo

Meanwhile, the pace of job losses has slowed:

Private-sector employment declined 203,000 in October, the seventh-straight month of moderating job losses and the smallest decline since July 2008, according to a report released Wednesday by payroll firm Automatic Data Processing Inc.

Meanwhile, job cuts announced by employers declined for the third-straight month, down 16% from September to 55,679, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. That was the best reading since March 2008 and less than half the cuts made in October 2008.WSJ

Obama Congratulates Brazil

Obama and Lula da Silva, president of Brazil, at the recent G20

"You can play a great game and still not win," Obama said. These will be the first Olympic games in South America. After Obama congratulates Brazil, he talks about the jobs report:

David Axelrod:

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Obama To Speak on Economy Aug. 7

Art by Stephen Powers

Video below
Obama is expected to speak at 1:30 eastern in the Rose Garden (it should be live streamed at cnn.com)
Economists were expecting larger than reported unemployment for July -- good news. They had been expecting 300,000 jobs lost and there were actually 247,000, which meant fewer layoffs. Also good news, stocks are up. Get more analysis here. The unemployment rate fell a teensy bit to 9.4% but the bad news is the unemployment rate is expected to get to 10%. But who knows, we could be surprised.
From the Department of Labor:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline in July (-247,000),
and the unemployment rate was little changed at 9.4 percent, the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The average monthly job
loss for May through July (-331,000) was about half the average
decline for November through April (-645,000). In July, job losses
continued in many of the major industry sectors.

Household Survey Data

In July, the number of unemployed persons was 14.5 million. The
unemployment rate was 9.4 percent, little changed for the second
consecutive month. (See table A-1.)