US Unemployment Rate Falls to 8.3% in January

[Jon Miller]

I think it is a huge loss when high level types get forced into McDonalds. For one case, it almost always means a lot of wealth distruction (and most people who were making 100k a year can't survive off of 30k a year, they have to go bankrupt, and 30k a year is a lot more than McDonalds pays).

Be that as it may, I don't know if he will get them but someone close to me has the best leads in maybe 3 years for finding a new job (and they are back up near 100k instead of down near 50k (which is what most of the jobs he applied for of the last couple of years were at)).

JM

[Jon Miller]

What you don't seem to understand is that McDonald's would never hire you.

This is also true. Many jobs won't take someone if they think they are 'too high'. My mom with a Masters of Education ran into that. And this wasn't for McDonalds jobs.

JM

[Uncle Sparky]

There is also often a huge difference between a minimum wage job and a living wage job. If you want food and shelter you need the latter.

[Guynemer]

And these is also a huge difference between a minimum-wage job and NO JOB.

[flash9286]

I started my new job in January .

[DaShi]

Thank you Obama!

[MrFun]

I am currently under employed.

[DaShi]

I thought you were a history major working as janitor.

[giblets]

Not a janitor at a museum...?

[Boris Godunov]

Great news. I look forward to Obama running on his economic record.The unemployment rate will likely stay above 7% until 2015. It will also increase to 8.9% at end of this year and hit 9.2% at the end of 2013 based on CBO forecasts.

"B-b-but economic good news might help Obama! Must root against America..."

Republicans.

[Tupac Shakur]

The unemployment rate will likely stay above 7% until 2015. It will also increase to 8.9% at end of this year and hit 9.2% at the end of 2013 based on CBO forecasts.

The latest CBO outlook is depressing indeed.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/02/cbo-how-hosed-are-we/252375/

[Tupac Shakur]

"B-b-but economic good news might help Obama! Must root against America..."

Republicans.

The CBO is nonpartisan and currently run by an Obama appointee.

Speaking of which... Doug Elmendorf

He's one of the good ones.

[Boris Godunov]

The CBO is nonpartisan and currently run by an Obama appointee.

Since I was referring to DD and not the CBO, this is an amazingly stupid point to make.

I'm happy to delve into how CBO estimates are just that, and changing economic news alters their forecasts and what not. Since the drop to 8.3% in January was unexpectedly strong, there's good reason to believe the CBO estimates (if DD was even protraying it accurately) are not gospel truth.

I know you're fond of Nate Silver, so we can also discuss how, as he notes, a monthly gain of just 150,000 jobs over the next year will increase Obama's odds of re-election to a point where he'll likely cruise.

[Tupac Shakur]

Since the drop to 8.3% in January was unexpectedly strong, there's good reason to believe the CBO estimates (if DD was even protraying it accurately) are not gospel truth.

No, there isn't. There's a ****load of people who dropped out of the labor force waiting to come back in, keeping the unemployment rate high. I think I'll trust the professionals on this one, thank you very much.

[Tupac Shakur]

I know you're fond of Nate Silver, so we can also discuss how, as he notes, a monthly gain of just 150,000 jobs over the next year will increase Obama's odds of re-election to a point where he'll likely cruise.

Nice spin.

Early Friday morning, FiveThirtyEight analyzed past employment data and came up with this rough guide: President Obama needs the economy to add at least about 150,000 jobs a month to have a decent shot at re-election.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/03/reads-and-reactions-jobs-and-g-o-p-turnout/