Falseflagop
04-04-2008, 06:59 AM
5.1%, Things are getting worse not better.
Plus these numbers are always skewed to appear better. Because the revisions added in last 2 months would show jobs lose at 150k. This is BAD !
U.S. Lost 80,000 Jobs in March; Unemployment Rate Rose to 5.1%
By Bob Willis
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost jobs for a third consecutive month in March and unemployment rose to the highest level in two and a half years, pointing to an economy that may already be in a recession.
Payrolls shrank by 80,000, more than forecast, after a decrease of 76,000 in February that was more than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, from 4.8 percent.
Job losses have shaken consumer confidence, contributing to a weakening in spending that has almost stalled growth. The report reinforces forecasts that the Federal Reserve, whose Chairman Ben S. Bernanke this week acknowledged the economy may face a recession, will need to do more to prevent further deterioration.
``The odds of a recession are now very high,'' Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. ``It will be a miracle if the economy is able to keep growing as the lack of a paycheck will put a brake on consumer spending. The Fed still has its work cut out for it.''
Economists had projected payrolls would fall by 50,000 following a previously reported 63,000 drop in February, according to the median of 79 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Economists' forecasts ranged from a decline of 150,000 to a gain of 65,000.
Revisions
Revisions subtracted 67,000 jobs from the originally reported figures for January and February. The last time the economy lost jobs for at least three consecutive months coincided with the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
The jobless rate was forecast to rise to 5 percent from 4.8 percent in February, the survey said.
Factory payrolls shrank by 48,000 workers, the biggest decrease since July 2003, Labor said. The drop included a loss of 24,000 jobs in the auto manufacturing and parts industries, which the government said ``largely'' reflected a the effects of strike at a supplier for General Motors Corp. Economists had forecast a decline of 35,000 in manufacturing jobs.
A walkout by workers at American Axle & Manufacturing over pay and benefits that started on Feb. 26 has idled almost half of GM's North American workforce.
Ford Motor Co., which lost $15.3 billion in the past two years, may cut more jobs in North America, Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said last month.
`Not Enough Jobs'
``We must continue to downsize and simply will not have enough jobs for all of our current hourly workers,'' Joe Hinrichs, Ford's manufacturing chief, and Marty Mulloy, vice president of labor affairs, said in a March 19 commentary sent to newspapers in communities where Ford has plants.
Builders eliminated 51,000 jobs after a decline of 37,000 in February.
Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, added 13,000 workers last month after an increase of 6,000 in February, the report showed. Retail payrolls decreased by 12,400 after dropped 46,700 in February.
Payrolls at financial firms decreased by 5,000 jobs, after declining 11,000 the prior month, Labor said.
Job losses in financial markets are mounting following the collapse in subprime lending.
Wall Street Jobs
Wall Street banks hit by mortgage losses and writedowns have cut more than 34,000 jobs in the past nine months, the most since the dot-com boom fizzled in 2001, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
This year, financial firms including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley have reduced staff in fixed income trading, securitization and investment banking. Lehman has eliminated 18 percent of its workforce, Morgan Stanley has cut 6.2 percent, and Merrill Lynch & Co. has trimmed 4.5 percent.
The average work week lengthened to 33.8 hours from 33.7 hours. Average weekly hours worked by production workers increased to 41.3 from 41.2, while overtime increased to 4.1 hours from 4 hours. That brought average weekly earnings up by $3.47 to $603.67 last month.
Hourly Wages
Workers' average hourly wages rose in line with forecasts to $17.86, up 5 cents, or 0.3 percent. Hourly earnings were 3.6 percent higher than a year earlier. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.3 percent increase from the prior month and a 3.6 percent gain for the 12-month period.
Americans, whose spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, are less upbeat about finding work, a Conference Board report showed last week. The share of consumers who said jobs are plentiful fell and the proportion who said jobs are hard to get jumped, pushing consumer confidence down to a five-year low in March.
More and more economists are forecasting a recession as job, retail-sales and manufacturing data have deteriorated this year. Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economics professor who heads the research group that determines when downturns begin, said last month that a contraction had begun.
``It now appears likely that real gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly,'' Bernanke said in testimony to Congress on April 2. He said he expected unemployment to move ``somewhat higher,'' in line with recent data showing a ``softer labor market.''
Seeking to improve the flow of credit, restore confidence to financial markets and cushion the slowdown, the Fed on March 18 lowered its key rate by three-quarters of a point and vowed to act ``as needed'' to cushion the economy. The Fed has cut the benchmark rate by 3 percentage points since September.
Investors are betting the central bank will need to lower the rate again when it next meets on April 30.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2....
"
Plus these numbers are always skewed to appear better. Because the revisions added in last 2 months would show jobs lose at 150k. This is BAD !
U.S. Lost 80,000 Jobs in March; Unemployment Rate Rose to 5.1%
By Bob Willis
April 4 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. lost jobs for a third consecutive month in March and unemployment rose to the highest level in two and a half years, pointing to an economy that may already be in a recession.
Payrolls shrank by 80,000, more than forecast, after a decrease of 76,000 in February that was more than initially reported, the Labor Department said today in Washington. The jobless rate rose to 5.1 percent, the highest since September 2005, from 4.8 percent.
Job losses have shaken consumer confidence, contributing to a weakening in spending that has almost stalled growth. The report reinforces forecasts that the Federal Reserve, whose Chairman Ben S. Bernanke this week acknowledged the economy may face a recession, will need to do more to prevent further deterioration.
``The odds of a recession are now very high,'' Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, said before the report. ``It will be a miracle if the economy is able to keep growing as the lack of a paycheck will put a brake on consumer spending. The Fed still has its work cut out for it.''
Economists had projected payrolls would fall by 50,000 following a previously reported 63,000 drop in February, according to the median of 79 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. Economists' forecasts ranged from a decline of 150,000 to a gain of 65,000.
Revisions
Revisions subtracted 67,000 jobs from the originally reported figures for January and February. The last time the economy lost jobs for at least three consecutive months coincided with the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
The jobless rate was forecast to rise to 5 percent from 4.8 percent in February, the survey said.
Factory payrolls shrank by 48,000 workers, the biggest decrease since July 2003, Labor said. The drop included a loss of 24,000 jobs in the auto manufacturing and parts industries, which the government said ``largely'' reflected a the effects of strike at a supplier for General Motors Corp. Economists had forecast a decline of 35,000 in manufacturing jobs.
A walkout by workers at American Axle & Manufacturing over pay and benefits that started on Feb. 26 has idled almost half of GM's North American workforce.
Ford Motor Co., which lost $15.3 billion in the past two years, may cut more jobs in North America, Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said last month.
`Not Enough Jobs'
``We must continue to downsize and simply will not have enough jobs for all of our current hourly workers,'' Joe Hinrichs, Ford's manufacturing chief, and Marty Mulloy, vice president of labor affairs, said in a March 19 commentary sent to newspapers in communities where Ford has plants.
Builders eliminated 51,000 jobs after a decline of 37,000 in February.
Service industries, which include banks, insurance companies, restaurants and retailers, added 13,000 workers last month after an increase of 6,000 in February, the report showed. Retail payrolls decreased by 12,400 after dropped 46,700 in February.
Payrolls at financial firms decreased by 5,000 jobs, after declining 11,000 the prior month, Labor said.
Job losses in financial markets are mounting following the collapse in subprime lending.
Wall Street Jobs
Wall Street banks hit by mortgage losses and writedowns have cut more than 34,000 jobs in the past nine months, the most since the dot-com boom fizzled in 2001, according to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
This year, financial firms including Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley have reduced staff in fixed income trading, securitization and investment banking. Lehman has eliminated 18 percent of its workforce, Morgan Stanley has cut 6.2 percent, and Merrill Lynch & Co. has trimmed 4.5 percent.
The average work week lengthened to 33.8 hours from 33.7 hours. Average weekly hours worked by production workers increased to 41.3 from 41.2, while overtime increased to 4.1 hours from 4 hours. That brought average weekly earnings up by $3.47 to $603.67 last month.
Hourly Wages
Workers' average hourly wages rose in line with forecasts to $17.86, up 5 cents, or 0.3 percent. Hourly earnings were 3.6 percent higher than a year earlier. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a 0.3 percent increase from the prior month and a 3.6 percent gain for the 12-month period.
Americans, whose spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, are less upbeat about finding work, a Conference Board report showed last week. The share of consumers who said jobs are plentiful fell and the proportion who said jobs are hard to get jumped, pushing consumer confidence down to a five-year low in March.
More and more economists are forecasting a recession as job, retail-sales and manufacturing data have deteriorated this year. Martin Feldstein, the Harvard economics professor who heads the research group that determines when downturns begin, said last month that a contraction had begun.
``It now appears likely that real gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly,'' Bernanke said in testimony to Congress on April 2. He said he expected unemployment to move ``somewhat higher,'' in line with recent data showing a ``softer labor market.''
Seeking to improve the flow of credit, restore confidence to financial markets and cushion the slowdown, the Fed on March 18 lowered its key rate by three-quarters of a point and vowed to act ``as needed'' to cushion the economy. The Fed has cut the benchmark rate by 3 percentage points since September.
Investors are betting the central bank will need to lower the rate again when it next meets on April 30.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=2....
"