U.S. sees lowest number of new jobs added in 6 years

U.S. sees lowest number of new jobs added in 6 years

I am taking a few moments from my “Crazy California” and science coverage today to hit a topic that will be critically important in November: Jobs.

Yesterday, the media coverage I followed was focused on San Jose. Interestingly, for those of us who have been following the Facebook trending news saga, San Jose completely failed to appear in the trending items. In fact, here is today’s list:

And while I am grateful to see news about the Great Pyramid, I also noticed that another critical story is also absent:

Via CNBC: US created 38,000 jobs in May vs. 162,000 expected

Job creation tumbled in May, with the economy adding just 38,000 positions, casting doubt on hopes for a stronger economic recovery as well as a Fed rate hike this summer.

The Labor Department also reported Friday that the headline unemployment fell to 4.7 percent. That rate does not include those who did not actively look for employment during the month or the underemployed who were working part time for economic reasons. A more encompassing rate that includes those groups held steady at 9.7 percent.

Wall Street was looking for payroll growth of 162,000 and the unemployment rate holding steady at 5.0 percent.

“There’s one word for it, which is just shocking,” said Dan North, chief economist at Euler Hermes North America. “Unfortunately it does look like a trend. It’s not great news.”

Let’s step back for a moment and digest these critical statements from an entity normally very friendly to the Obama Administration:

• There was no minimizing how bad the employment report was in the lede.
• There was actually a reference to a more encompassing rate that is close to 10 percent.
• It ends with the revelation that it isn’t an anomaly because of an outside factor beyond government control..but a trend.

The White House had to place their own special spin on the data:

White House officials cited several bright spots in the report: Average hourly earnings rose 5 cents to $25.59 in May and are up 2.5 percent over the past year. The long-term unemployment rate fell to 1.2 percent, the lowest level since August 2008. And employers are still hiring, even if at a slower pace, extending the longest streak of job creation in the nation’s history.

“When you look at the totality of the circumstances here, I have a lot of confidence that we still have the wind at our back,” Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said in an interview.

Since this statement comes from an administration that joyfully describes how it deceives the gullible media, I am not comforted.

The bloom appears to be off the rose, in terms of the American media’s relationship with Obama’s crew. I can only surmise our journalists want to regain at least a little of their credibility back before a new administration takes over.

Too little, too late.

In fact, based on Obama’s own remarks about the economy recently, I will project that we are entering into a new era of economic hardships. Obama spoke recently in Indiana, giving another tired lecture on how “the economy is better off now than at the start” of his presidency.

Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge provides the realities underpinning Obama’s fantasy:

That Obama asserted the “economy is awesome” a few days before this report was released should have been a warning to brace for bad employment news: His statements are truly the “kiss of death.”

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