Unemployment rate drops to 4.7 percent, the lowest since July 2001

[Naturalized-Texan]

Unemployment Rate Declines in January (http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060203/D8FHPH6O0.html)

WASHINGTON (AP) - Employers stepped up hiring in January, boosting payrolls by 193,000 and lowering the nation's unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, the lowest since July 2001.

The fresh snapshot of the jobs climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, suggested that the economy started the new year on fairly good footing.

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Moreover, job growth in December turned out to be stronger than previously thought. Revised figures showed payrolls expanded by 140,000 - an improvement over the 108,000 new jobs first estimated a month ago. Employment was revised up for some previous months as well.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.7 percent in January, from 4.9 percent in December.

{More at the link above.}

[Naturalized-Texan]

An explosive jobs report and Bush says nothing? What’s up? (http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow200602031604.asp)

Economic pessimists have had a field day ever since GDP was reported a week ago at only 1.1 percent for the fourth quarter. But the latest jobs report released on Friday blew them out of the water. Including revisions, January employment is a huge 317,000 above the initial December level. In fact, over the past three months, non-farm payrolls have increased an average 229,000 per month. That’s explosive. We’re on pace for another 2 million jobs in 2006, following gains of 2 million in 2004 and 2005. Wages are also picking up steam, and with gasoline prices falling, consumer purchasing power and retail sales are climbing.

So the question for the Bush Administration is this: What are you waiting for?

As soon as the breakout employment news was released, Salesman-in-Chief George W. Bush should have been in the Rose Garden giving it air time. He should have declared that jobs have continued to grow big time while the unemployment rate has fallen — all the way down to 4.7 percent. He then could have used this optimistic data to build his already strong case for extending the tax cuts on dividends and capital gains. These 2003 tax cuts, along with lower income taxes, are a good reason why jobs numbers are strong and the economy is prosperous.

What are they waiting for?

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According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average weekly earnings are up 3.6 percent year-on-year. That’s the best since 2000.

{More at the link above.}

[DoctorDoom]

But where are all the $100K/year jobs that flourish under RAT presidents? After all, everybody knows that burger-flipper jobs are the rule when a Republican is in the Oval Office. Our libs constantly point that out to us.

[Melz]

But where are all the $100K/year jobs that flourish under RAT presidents? After all, everybody knows that burger-flipper jobs are the rule when a Republican is in the Oval Office. Our libs constantly point that out to us.

That's because the liberals expect more from our government! They EXPECT someone to hand their simple asses a large paycheck on the spot. If that is not the case, then the economy is in dire straights.

Perhaps if these people would stop skipping school and work to wander around this country protesting, making nappy drawings on posterboard and cussing at people, they would have a better, skilled, higher paying job.

[Bob_Arctor]

But where are all the $100K/year jobs that flourish under RAT presidents? After all, everybody knows that burger-flipper jobs are the rule when a Republican is in the Oval Office. Our libs constantly point that out to us.
That's an interesting point. It's good the unemployment rate is dropping to such low levels, but it's also troubling that the areas where we're losing jobs are well-paying but those areas that are growing rapidly - entertainment, service and the like - are much lower paying.

[Naturalized-Texan]

That's an interesting point. It's good the unemployment rate is dropping to such low levels, but it's also troubling that the areas where we're losing jobs are well-paying but those areas that are growing rapidly - entertainment, service and the like - are much lower paying.
Actually, it's just the opposite. The jobs that are being lost - oursourced - are mostly menial, low-paying jobs, while the jobs that are growing are mostly higher paying jobs. You denigrate service jobs, but the fastest growing service jobs are in health care services and in providing computer services to corporations - all high-paying jobs. The company from which I retired is making a mint by providing computer services to corporations, health care providers, and the government and the people working on those service contracts are making high salaries - I know a lot of them. Those services must be performed in the U.S. and can't be outsourced. That's why average weekly earnings are up 3.6 percent in 2005 over 2004.

[Native American]

That's an interesting point. It's good the unemployment rate is dropping to such low levels, but it's also troubling that the areas where we're losing jobs are well-paying but those areas that are growing rapidly - entertainment, service and the like - are much lower paying.

The fact that home ownership is at an all-time high puts the lie to that DNC talking point of yours!

[DesertFox]

The whole of metropolitan Phoenix is flipping burgers at each other. Not the Crips and Bloods, of course, who are flipping bullets back and forth; or the local Tough Guys, who flip the bird at each other; or the cool dudes down at school, who snap boogers off the ends of their fingers. But everybody else is flipping burgers, and the lines of cars stretch from Scottsdale in the east to Los Angeles in the west, whence they curve north and stretch all the way to Sactown, where Wyatt Junker interviews them on his afternoon radio show.

Yep, them burger jobs keepin' us goin' here in Phoenix.