The Sluggish US Job Growth; Who Is To Blame?
In a report that is likely to ease fears that the economy is hurling toward another recession, the government reported today that nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 103,000 in September, leaving the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent.
The increase in employment partially reflects the return to payrolls of about 45,000 telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August but there were also job gains in professional and business services, health care, and construction, while Government employment continued to trend down, noted the report published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Although the report shows that manufacturing payrolls also shrank, there is nonetheless some encouraging signs. For example, the Labor Department said the average workweek for all private-sector workers edged up in September and employers in August added 57,000 jobs, not zero as previously reported, and July’s job count was also revised up to 127,000 from 85,000 initially reported.
Overall, the third quarter’s average monthly job growth at 96,000 jobs is not enough to keep up with the population growth and bring down the unemployment rate.
Indeed, the ranks of the unemployed, remained at about 14 million and about 45% of these workers last month said they had been without jobs for six months or more.
Some other good news in the report, if one can call it such, is the number of part-time workers who want full-time hours rose sharply over the month, to 9.3 million, from 8.8 million in August. But as has been a mixed bag in these recent reports, real unemployment rate, meaning those looking for work, those not working or looking for work but indicated that they want to work and are available for work, and those employed part time but desire to work full time, that rate slightly rose to 16.5% in September, up from 16.2% in the prior month.
The question that remains in the minds of many is, why is there such a weak job growth?
The answer, not surprisingly, depends on who you ask and their party affiliation: Every Republican that gets within a reporter’s mike sings the mantra the blame must be squarely be placed under Obama’s feet.
Democrats, on the other hand, say look to Republicans and their “rich” allies who are trying to make sure Obama is a “one term president.” According to Democrats, the benign “explanation” for why the Obama administration is responsible for the slow growth is because “businesses are afraid to expand and create jobs because they fear costly regulations and higher taxes,” says Paul Krugman, a leading economist in the country.
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