red states rule
06-18-2009, 10:12 AM
The AP has done a huge reversal when it comes to job losses declining
Employers cut fewer jobs in April, jobless rate falls
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – Employers cut far fewer jobs in April than in recent months and the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent, a better-than-expected showing that nonetheless reveals strains in the nation’s labor market.
For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. But in April the losses totaled 20,000, an improvement from the 81,000 reductions in payrolls logged in March. Job losses for both February and March turned out to be a bit deeper than previously reported.
The latest snapshot of the nationwide employment conditions — while clearly still weak — was better than many economists were anticipating. They were bracing for job cuts of 75,000 and for the unemployment rate to climb to 5.2 percent.
The unemployment rate, derived from a different statistical survey than the payroll figures, fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent in March. That survey showed more people finding employment than those who didn’t.
Businesses are handing out pink slips as they cope with an economy that is teetering on the edge of a recession, or possibly in one already. A severe housing slump, harder-to-get credit and financial turmoil have forced people and businesses to be more cautious in their spending. And that has hurt the economy…
In other economic news, the Commerce Department reported that orders to U.S. factories rose a bigger-than-expected 1.4 percent in March, after two straight months of declines.
The fresh economic news lifted Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrials were up in afternoon trading…
Meanwhile, zooming energy and food prices are taking a bite out of paychecks. If the job market continues to falter, wage growth probably will slow, too, making people even less inclined to spend. That would spell further trouble for the economy…
The economy advanced at a snail’s pace of just 0.6 percent in the first three months of this year as people and businesses clamped down on their spending. It marked the second quarter in a row of such feeble growth.
A growing number of economists believe the economy is in a recession and is indeed contracting now.
Under one rough rule, if the economy contracts for six straight months it is considered to be in a recession. That didn’t happen in the last recession — in 2001— though. A panel of experts at the National Bureau of Economic Research that determines when U.S. recessions begin and end uses a broader definition, taking into account income, employment and other barometers. That finding is usually made well after the fact.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/flashback-ap-bemoans-unemployment-at-5
Employers cut fewer jobs in April, jobless rate falls
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – Employers cut far fewer jobs in April than in recent months and the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent, a better-than-expected showing that nonetheless reveals strains in the nation’s labor market.
For the fourth month in a row, the economy lost jobs, the Labor Department reported Friday. But in April the losses totaled 20,000, an improvement from the 81,000 reductions in payrolls logged in March. Job losses for both February and March turned out to be a bit deeper than previously reported.
The latest snapshot of the nationwide employment conditions — while clearly still weak — was better than many economists were anticipating. They were bracing for job cuts of 75,000 and for the unemployment rate to climb to 5.2 percent.
The unemployment rate, derived from a different statistical survey than the payroll figures, fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent in March. That survey showed more people finding employment than those who didn’t.
Businesses are handing out pink slips as they cope with an economy that is teetering on the edge of a recession, or possibly in one already. A severe housing slump, harder-to-get credit and financial turmoil have forced people and businesses to be more cautious in their spending. And that has hurt the economy…
In other economic news, the Commerce Department reported that orders to U.S. factories rose a bigger-than-expected 1.4 percent in March, after two straight months of declines.
The fresh economic news lifted Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrials were up in afternoon trading…
Meanwhile, zooming energy and food prices are taking a bite out of paychecks. If the job market continues to falter, wage growth probably will slow, too, making people even less inclined to spend. That would spell further trouble for the economy…
The economy advanced at a snail’s pace of just 0.6 percent in the first three months of this year as people and businesses clamped down on their spending. It marked the second quarter in a row of such feeble growth.
A growing number of economists believe the economy is in a recession and is indeed contracting now.
Under one rough rule, if the economy contracts for six straight months it is considered to be in a recession. That didn’t happen in the last recession — in 2001— though. A panel of experts at the National Bureau of Economic Research that determines when U.S. recessions begin and end uses a broader definition, taking into account income, employment and other barometers. That finding is usually made well after the fact.
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/flashback-ap-bemoans-unemployment-at-5