A broader measure of unemployment—which includes job seekers as well as those in part-time jobs—rose to 15% in July from 14.9% the previous month.◼ 'Longest stretch on record'... - Kristen A Lee/New York Daily News
With just three months left before Election Day, President Obama got some badly-needed good news on the jobs front Friday, as a Labor Department report showed the U.S. economy added a better-than-expected 163,000 jobs in July.◼ 195,000 Fewer Americans Had Jobs in July; 150,000 Dropped Out of Labor Force - Terence P. Jeffrey/CNS
The unemployment rate, however, ticked up to 8.3 percent, which Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the GOP seized upon to argue that the Obama administration is still not creating jobs quickly enough.
The mixed messages suggest the latest jobs data will not change the rhetoric coming from either campaign.
Romney called the report a "hammer blow to struggling middle-class families" in a statement shortly after the July numbers were released.
"President Obama doesn’t have a plan and believes that the private sector is ‘doing fine.’ Obviously, that is not the case," he said. "We’ve now gone 42 consecutive months with the unemployment rate above eight percent."
◼ Job growth steps up, but jobless rate rises - Reuters (via Drudge)
◼ The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent, from 8.2 percent in June. - AP
Stronger job creation could help President Barack Obama's re-election hopes. Still, the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent since his first month in office — the longest stretch on record. No president since World War II has faced re-election with unemployment over 8 percent.◼ 'Real' Unemployment Rate Shows Far More Jobless - CNBC
The government's most widely publicized unemployment rate measures only those who are out of a job and currently looking for work. It does not count discouraged potential employees who have quit looking, nor those who are underemployed — wanting to work full-time but forced to work part-time.◼ White House’s Futile Spin Of Jobs Report: The Unemployment Rate Is Not 8.3%, It’s Really 8.254%… - Weasel Zippers via Beltway Confidential:
For that count, the government releases a separate number called the "U-6," which provides a more complete tally of how many people really are out of work.
The numbers in some cases are startling.
Consider: Nevada's U-6 rate is 22.1 percent, up from just 7.6 percent in 2007. Economically troubled California has a 20.3 percent real rate, while Rhode Island is at 18.3 percent, more than double its 8.3 percent rate in 2007.
Those numbers compare especially unfavorably to the national rate, high in itself at 14.9 percent though off its record peak of 17.2 percent in October 2009.
◼ WH: The unemployment rate is actually lower than 8.3 percent - Joel Gehrke/Washington Examiner @Joelmentum
(They) did not mention that 195,000 fewer Americans had jobs this month as opposed to last month, as 150,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force (and so were not counted in the Labor Department’s calculation of the unemployment rate).◼ Unemployment Rises to 8.3%- Sequestration Will Cut a Million More Jobs - Yid With Lid
A year ago, the president demanded a $500 billion "sequester" of defense dollars as a penalty should Congress fail to cut a grand debt deal. Congress of course failed, and Mr. Obama's sequester is now imminent. The sequester slash comes on top of the $487 billion in defense cuts Mr. Obama had already ordered in January of this year, threatening the likes of Mansfield.◼ The Obama Jobs Sequester: Dramatic cuts in military spending are beginning to take a toll on defense jobs in battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia and Florida. - Wall St. Journal
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned of the damage the sequester will do to national security. Yet the far more immediate political problem for Mr. Obama is that the cuts are compounding his domestic jobs liability—in the final stretch of the campaign.
More than one million lost private-sector jobs, to get down to it, as estimated by groups ranging from the National Association of Manufacturers to the Aerospace Industries Association. Military jobs are on the block, but the bulk of the pink slips will come from private businesses—from giant defense companies on down to smaller businesses that are the economic mainstays of their communities.
