Not So Fast, Mr. President...

Friday, December 4, 2009 2:45 PM by Mattie Duppler

Leader Boehner's office put out a statement this morning highlighting why the White House may want to reel in its delight over the unemployment numbers released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We agree - 10% unemployment is not a tiny number, and an increase in temporary employment during the holiday season is hardly unexpected. According to the Leader, there are four main points to be made about the latest report:

• Jobs are Still Falling; There’s Been No Turnaround.  As stated by former Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin: “This is a 'yes, but. . .' report. . .Only 11,000 jobs were lost in November compared to an average of nearly 400,000 over the past year; the unemployment rate fell to 10.0 percent from 10.2 percent; and total hour, hourly wages, and weekly earnings were all up.  But monthly data are volatile.  Any single report is inconclusive and there are some suggestions of statistical quirks in this one.  Jobs are still falling; we have yet to see a turnaround.  Workers continued to become too discouraged to look for work.  A substantial portion of the strength was the rise of 52,000 jobs in temporary help – a far cry from broad and permanent job growth."

• Long-Term Unemployment Continues to Rise.  According to economist Alex Brill of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI):  “The U.S. workforce shrunk by an estimated 98,000 people last month and has decrease consistently over the last year.  As people stop looking for work, that can lower the unemployment rate and give a false impression of good news.  People will continue to give up their job search because the economy has been bad for so long and the outlook remains grim.  While the national unemployment rate has dipped slightly, long-term unemployment continues to rise.”

• Government Keeps Growing, While the Private Sector Keeps Shrinking.  Ways & Means Committee Republican staff notes: “The education and health sectors, the business services sector, and the government sector added jobs.  In contrast, the manufacturing, construction, and retail sectors continued to shed jobs.”  Since January, when the massive “stimulus” spending bill was enacted, the U.S. economy has shed approximately 3.3 million jobs, the overwhelming majority of them private sector jobs.

• The Obama-Pelosi “Stimulus” Remains a Disaster.  More Holtz-Eakin: “Nothing in this report changes the key assessment of policy: the stimulus bill remains a bloated, ineffectual disaster.  The Obama agenda – higher taxes, easier unionization, protectionist trade policy, intrusive energy and environmental regulation, expansive and costly health care, and enormous budget deficits as far as the eye can see – remains the single greatest impediment to the creation of jobs by small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

I 

would add that over at the White House, lead Economic Advisor Christina Romer, is claiming the report illustates that it is "

clear we are moving in the right direction

." Now where have we heard that before? Oh right, back in August, when the President c

laimed we were headed in the "right direction"

and unemployment had not yet breached 10%...history proves we should be wary of any enthusiasm regarding recovery from this administration.

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