The article does give a statistic of 2 million jobs created in the last 3 years, reducing the jobless from 5 million to 3. A seasonally adjusted decrease of 18,000, though not something to crow about, is also not a news story.
A news story would include the trend of fewer jobs created, getting less and less (if this is the actual case) until the story is that it finally crossed the line. With that we can make some judgements of what to do. If last month and the months before were high creation months and we treat this month like the 4 horsemen were coming, we make matters worse.
But we aren't given the data...just THE NEED TO PANIC~!!!!
I would also have like the writer and the editor to have included whether the jobs are better paying in the last 3 years of declining unemployment, bookmarked by this event of 18,000 jobs negative. (Jeez, wouldn't the US like to see an 18,000 job negative. They would hire them all and train them to be the END OF CATASTROPHE Marching Band.)
What were and are the wages? Is that changing too? In what sectors are the jobs being lost? Is the formally ballyhooed "Green Sector", which was making hundreds of thousands of jobs just last year...are they still gaining? Are those jobs better paying than those that are being lost?
Alas; we are left with the newspapers of record giving us drivel. Soon they will report the loss of the reporting jobs, intelligent verbiaging being just another buggy-whip equivalent in these turbulent times. Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
Where are the total employment figures, compared to the 25-55 population, which are the more interesting data ? Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
ADP Reports 693,000 Private-Sector Jobs Lost in December Private sector jobs fell 693,000 in the U.S. in December, according to a revamped national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers. That's far higher than the 515,000 loss forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. The December ADP survey is the first to incorporate a major overhaul of the methodology, including new regressions. The changes were introduced because the ADP survey has underestimated the monthly number of job losses as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics since the recession began in December 2007. For instance, under the old calculations, the ADP Survey showed a loss of 250,000 private-sector jobs in November. The new methodology shows a 476,000 job drop in November, closer to the 533,000 reported by the BLS. The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs while the BLS data include government workers. Based on recent public-sector job growth, Wednesday's ADP report suggests December nonfarm payrolls will show a loss of at least 650,000 when the BLS reports the data on Friday.
Private sector jobs fell 693,000 in the U.S. in December, according to a revamped national employment report published Wednesday by payroll giant Automatic Data Processing Inc. and consultancy Macroeconomic Advisers.
That's far higher than the 515,000 loss forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey.
The December ADP survey is the first to incorporate a major overhaul of the methodology, including new regressions. The changes were introduced because the ADP survey has underestimated the monthly number of job losses as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics since the recession began in December 2007.
For instance, under the old calculations, the ADP Survey showed a loss of 250,000 private-sector jobs in November. The new methodology shows a 476,000 job drop in November, closer to the 533,000 reported by the BLS.
The ADP survey tallies only private-sector jobs while the BLS data include government workers. Based on recent public-sector job growth, Wednesday's ADP report suggests December nonfarm payrolls will show a loss of at least 650,000 when the BLS reports the data on Friday.
Companies are accelerating the pace of firings as the recession plaguing the world's largest economy heads into a second year. The Labor Department may report in two days that employers slashed jobs in December for a 12th consecutive month, putting total job cuts at 2.4 million for 2008, according to a Bloomberg survey median.
