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U.S. economy adds just 74,000 jobs in December

For the last 5 or 6 months, I've given Obama the benefit of the doubt about our recovery and have refrained from voicing any criticism on the employment situation. Although it was going very slow, it appeared that we actually might be clawing our way out of the mess we've been in, and slowly but surely on our way back to the top... But after reading December's jobs report and realizing that the number of people who dropped out of the workforce and gave up looking for a job, out numbered the net jobs created by a 7 to 1 ratio, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I jumped the gun.

Well... There's always next months report... I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
TheNextEra said:
That figure is close to the figure on bls.gov site which listed job openings as 3.9 million in October. It also doesn't say what type of jobs or where. But the number is pretty valid on its own.
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A government website. Of course what Obama says and the IRS and the BLS and HHS etc. is all absolutely true.
 
jonny5 said:
It is what it is. The fact that 40% of population is choosing not to work (and thus not pay federal taxes), and 10 million people claim they cant find a job, is alarming, however. Especially when we're spending 2 trillion a year on income support. And theres 4 million job openings.
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Which, of course, isn't true.
 
Fenton said:
LOl !!

Wow. 5 years in with 70k jobs last moneth and your'e back to blaming Bush.

Unbeleiveable.
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Pointing out that the job situation is better than it was 5 years ago is now "blaming Bush." :roll:
 
TheNextEra said:
That makes no sense. You would further go into debt to work a job you could never repay your debt with?
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What really makes sense, is to stay on unemployment insurance and not pay any bills. Yeah right. What makes sense is to get back to work and continue to look for a better job or look for moving up in the company you are working for.

That's not an excuse alright but that isn't very bright either.
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Staying on unemployment insurance is really bright. Sit at home and do nothing including paying any bills with the amount you receive on unemployment.
 
Grim17 said:
For the last 5 or 6 months, I've given Obama the benefit of the doubt about our recovery and have refrained from voicing any criticism on the employment situation. Although it was going very slow, it appeared that we actually might be clawing our way out of the mess we've been in, and slowly but surely on our way back to the top... But after reading December's jobs report and realizing that the number of people who dropped out of the workforce and gave up looking for a job, out numbered the net jobs created by a 7 to 1 ratio, I'm beginning to feel like maybe I jumped the gun.

Well... There's always next months report... I'll keep my fingers crossed.
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Oh god what a load of BS even Fox news would reject this
 
ttwtt78640 said:
If you are a carpenter in TX, the fact that a welding job in KS, radio broadcasting job in KY or medical billing job in NY is open makes little difference in your job seeking quest. BTW, $2 trillion is over half of the federal budget - care to document how that as being spent on income support?
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However if there is a carpenter job in NY then you move. Further if you are a carpenter and there are welding jobs in NY I would learn to weld. A person can sit at home forever and put every excuse on the planet in front of you for not getting a job.
 
winston53660 said:
Oh god what a load of BS even Fox news would reject this
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Could you be more specific and tell me exactly what I said in that post that you disagree with and/or consider to be "BS"?

edit: I went back and re-read the report and found that the 7 to 1 ratio that I stated was incorrect... I used the wrong figure (490,000) to calculate that and the correct ratio is actually 4 to 1. I stand corrected.
 
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Grim17 said:
Could you be more specific and tell me exactly what I said in that post that you disagree with and/or consider to be "BS"?

edit: I went back and re-read the report and found that the 7 to 1 ratio that I stated was incorrect... I used the wrong figure (490,000) to calculate that, so the correct ratio is 4 to 1.
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NoI will not give you help with disingenuous agitprop.
 
winston53660 said:
NoI will not give you help with disingenuous agitprop.
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Just as I thought... It was a baseless, partisan attack that you couldn't justify, which explains perfectly your choice to respond with another insult.
 
Grim17 said:
Just as I thought... It was a baseless, partisan attack that you couldn't justify, which explains perfectly your choice to respond with another insult.
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Look in the mirror when you say partisan.
 
Born Free said:
A government website. Of course what Obama says and the IRS and the BLS and HHS etc. is all absolutely true.
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Then you are free to provide another source that shows differently than what I posted. I won't hold my breathe that you will, but hey, who knows.

Don't know of too many even on the right that dispute the BLS figures that shows unemployment increaseing.
 
Born Free said:
What really makes sense, is to stay on unemployment insurance and not pay any bills. Yeah right. What makes sense is to get back to work and continue to look for a better job or look for moving up in the company you are working for.
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Where did anyone say to stay on unemployment and pay NO bills? Sorry, but uprooting your family and abandoning a home that you are underwater on to work at a job that you will never pay off your debt on is just silly. Sorry ain't going to happen.

Staying on unemployment insurance is really bright. Sit at home and do nothing including paying any bills with the amount you receive on unemployment.
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Right, because people on unemployment pay no bills whatsoever :roll:
 
TheNextEra said:
Then you are free to provide another source that shows differently than what I posted. I won't hold my breathe that you will, but hey, who knows.

Don't know of too many even on the right that dispute the BLS figures that shows unemployment increaseing.
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I don't trust a thing our government says. And that's from Obama on down
 
Erod said:
The effective unemployment rate is closer to 20 percent, and far higher in certain regions.
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That's just plainly wrong. No data to support that assertion whatsoever.
 
TheNextEra said:
Where did anyone say to stay on unemployment and pay NO bills? Sorry, but uprooting your family and abandoning a home that you are underwater on to work at a job that you will never pay off your debt on is just silly. Sorry ain't going to happen.
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There is an old saying "You go where the work is" I see you don't believer that statement. You suggest people stay on unemployment and STAY PUT.

Right, because people on unemployment pay no bills whatsoever :roll:
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Unemployment bennifits are surly not going to pay the bills that you were making on your regular paycheck. Further unemployment bennifits RUN OUT.
 
The current employment market shows a disturbing trend in the character of both individuals and government. There are clearly a large number of people who feel they are too good for a low paying job. But government actions are contradictory and counter productive. On one hand the new health care law encourages employers to reduce working hours, while at the same time attempts to buy votes by pushing higher minimum wages and extending unemployment. And then there is the push for amnesty to get people to fill those jobs that are available. When you put these factors together it becomes clear that the goal of the federal government is not to decrease unemployment at all, but to create a dependent underclass while dividing the population and pitting groups against each other. I'm not buying that our federal government is collectively too stupid to see it. I think they know exactly what they are doing, which is disturbing because it is very clear that their intent is to better their own positions rather than those of the citizens.
 
Think about the collective affects of some of our current laws. The health care law allows "kids" to stay on their parents' insurance until they are 26. At the same time employers are encouraged to reduce worker's hours. Add to that a predatory student loan program that ropes kids in to long term debt while they have little understanding of the consequences while making empty promises to them about their future prospects and you have a picture of a government making a concerted effort to create a generation of people who will be government dependent. They are pushed in to college before they have a goal for their future, signed up for long term debt they will have to start repaying upon graduation and employment, and then released in to a work environment of fewer hours with lower pay. It's no wonder they are not looking for work. They are a perfect mark for government dependency. They have enough liberal college education to think they know better, no job experience, two and a half decades of being taken care of and stiff penalties for gong out and making their own way. And we think the government has our best interests in mind?
 
Ockham said:
Well, actually there are reasons they cannot move. If they are upside down on their home mortgage, they can't move. Just one example.
Not all company's are willing to retrain - especially for skilled workers. Construction is skilled labor - you can't just hire someone who's been doing an office job for 5 years and make them into a welder or set I beams in concrete.
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Yeah. Pretty sure if I lose my software job, the local construction companies are NOT going to hire me to build houses. Not when they can get younger people with stronger backs.
 
Born Free said:
There is an old saying "You go where the work is" I see you don't believer that statement. You suggest people stay on unemployment and STAY PUT.

Unemployment bennifits are surly not going to pay the bills that you were making on your regular paycheck. Further unemployment bennifits RUN OUT.
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Relocating a family is not free. Yes, the cost involved to continually move to "Where the work is at" is going to be exceedingly difficult for people with very little to no income that are struggling just to pay the bills they have.

Somehow you think that a family with an underwater mortgage is just going to be able to uproot and move to a new location free of cost and start magically working. Doesn't work that way.

That doesn't even include what a cost to "retrain" would be. The fantasy is those thinking that people can just switch jobs and move their entire family at a drop of ahat free of charge. And you would have to think it is free of charge, otherwise where are they going to get the money to relocate and retrain in the first place?
 
Born Free said:
I don't trust a thing our government says. And that's from Obama on down
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That's your problem then, but even the right as a whole doesn't dispute the BLS numbers. If you choose to ignore reality, that's on you not me.
 
jonny5 said:
Again, sounds like excuses.
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There are other reasons people won't relocate for a job. Maybe their spouse has a good job in the area. Maybe the schools their kids go to are very good for the kids - or the kids are getting extra help due to autism or something and they don't want to move them. Maybe they have elderly parents in the area that they are caregivers for. Maybe they have a closeknit family and don't want to move away from cousins, aunts, uncles.


And it's expensive to move. It's hard to apply for a job in Kansas if you're living in Texas; you have to get there, apply, travel back home. Maybe it takes a couple trips, and companies don't always reimburse job seekers, especially if there are local candidates. Then if you get the job and you have to show up on Monday - pricey, again. Gotta travel there; get a temporary place to live while you start the job; support two places until you can move; and all the moving expenses.

Call them excuses if you want to. Everyone balances out pros and cons and comes up with an answer that's right for them.

I've had a sister back what she could fit into her car and drive across country for a job, leaving everything else behind. I couldn't do that, myself. Not in my nature.

Oh - and what if they have animals? hard to relocate horses... dogs/cats you can move, but again - extra expense.
 
tech30528 said:
Think about the collective affects of some of our current laws. The health care law allows "kids" to stay on their parents' insurance until they are 26. At the same time employers are encouraged to reduce worker's hours. Add to that a predatory student loan program that ropes kids in to long term debt while they have little understanding of the consequences while making empty promises to them about their future prospects and you have a picture of a government making a concerted effort to create a generation of people who will be government dependent. They are pushed in to college before they have a goal for their future, signed up for long term debt they will have to start repaying upon graduation and employment, and then released in to a work environment of fewer hours with lower pay. It's no wonder they are not looking for work. They are a perfect mark for government dependency. They have enough liberal college education to think they know better, no job experience, two and a half decades of being taken care of and stiff penalties for gong out and making their own way. And we think the government has our best interests in mind?
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Nothing like a blanket statement about a whole generation.

My stepkids are each working two part-time jobs; yes, they are on my insurance (which I pay for) but thank goodness they are covered. They're working their butts off, but don't have full-time jobs that pay health care.

When they lose a job for whatever reason (latest was the state govt stopped funding the program for new mothers that she worked for) they hustle and get jobs. One of them was unemployed for two months; yes, she used food stamps, but she hustled and got a job after those two months. Glad she had the food stamps to help her out.

So when you say kids are lazy, you aren't paying attention.
 
paddymcdougall said:
There are other reasons people won't relocate for a job. Maybe their spouse has a good job in the area. Maybe the schools their kids go to are very good for the kids - or the kids are getting extra help due to autism or something and they don't want to move them. Maybe they have elderly parents in the area that they are caregivers for. Maybe they have a closeknit family and don't want to move away from cousins, aunts, uncles.


And it's expensive to move. It's hard to apply for a job in Kansas if you're living in Texas; you have to get there, apply, travel back home. Maybe it takes a couple trips, and companies don't always reimburse job seekers, especially if there are local candidates. Then if you get the job and you have to show up on Monday - pricey, again. Gotta travel there; get a temporary place to live while you start the job; support two places until you can move; and all the moving expenses.

Call them excuses if you want to. Everyone balances out pros and cons and comes up with an answer that's right for them.

I've had a sister back what she could fit into her car and drive across country for a job, leaving everything else behind. I couldn't do that, myself. Not in my nature.

Oh - and what if they have animals? hard to relocate horses... dogs/cats you can move, but again - extra expense.
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Point being, why should I have to pay for these excuses? For someone who has a horse, who wont move, who doesn't want to leave family? How do we know any of these are even true? Does anyone hold people accountable? Of course not, theres just faceless bureaucrats handing out MY money to faceless unemployed.
 
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