Last Friday, the unemployment rate once again fell, January now the 23rd straight month of job creation for the country. In December, the unemployment rate was 8.5%. In January, the economy added 243,000 jobs, much higher than predicted, and the rate of unemployed fell to 8.3%. While this is certainly good news, there is still plenty or volatility in the economy to create worry and fears of a double-dip recession, as was seen when December's jobs report was released with 200,000 jobs added. However, this time the news is almost unequivocally positive. All major sectors -- agriculture, manufacturing, etc. -- posted better than expected numbers and it's becoming less and less likely that the long-term unemployed are dropping out of unemployment since finding a job is becoming easier and easier. This fact created much trepidation over the past year. The falling unemployment rate was met with incredulity by many. They were argued the numbers were inaccurate because people were not finding jobs, they simply had given up hope. Not this time around though.
Analysts expected January would fair about as well as December, with only the modest sum of 200,000 jobs created again. But the new figures released Friday show an almost 25% increase in the numbers predicted. And this is good news for everybody -- almost.
The Republican Presidential candidates have been berating President Obama on the campaign trail, excoriating his "failed" policies, arguing that the President has done nothing to bring America back out of the Great Recession (never mind an obstructionist Congress, which has yet to pass any jobs legislation since winning back the House, and several Senate seats in 2010). But this argument only holds up as long as the economy continues to move along sluggishly. January's jobs report makes this argument into Swiss cheese and Republicans are already on the defensive.
For months they've talked of failed policy, but now they're changing their tune. Now they argue that it's not so much President Obama's policies have failed, but had a Republican been in office, the economy would have rebounded sooner. With a Republican President, they contend, job growth would have been far more robust, and that with Obama in office, says current front runner, Mitt Romney, "[He] has not helped the process. He's hurt it." If these numbers do continue at this steady clip, Gov. Romney finds himself in an awkward position trying to defend that statement. And even if Obama only gets one or two more months of job growth, that's put him at 24 months, 2 years, half of his presidency at least of job growth in the country. Coming out of the greatest economic recession since the Great Depression, that's not a bad record to hold. In contrast, the last administration created only 3 million jobs in 8 years, and there were two recessions, covering 22 months, during the 96 months George W. Bush was in office. President Obama has seen more job growth under his 3 years in office than Bush saw over the span of 8 years. Say what you want about his ideals, his positions, his place of birth. The President has done some remarkable work in the face of staunch political opposition and the deep crater of a country he inherited.
No comments:
Post a Comment