The American economy added 115,000 jobs in April, the 26th consecutive month of private sector job growth.
While generally good news, the numbers fell well short of expectations.
Still, the unemployment rate fell from 8.2 percent in March to 8.1 percent in April. However, that was mainly because more people gave up looking for work.
A key reason for the sluggish job growth is the sharp decline in public sector jobs under President Obama (it turns out Bush was the big public sector job creator of the past 19 years as indicated in this chart from economist Paul Krugman of The New York Times).
The largest federation of unions in the U.S. blames obstructionist Republicans and their economic policies for slow job growth.
"Republicans in Congress have blocked President Obama’s efforts to keep propelling growth, whether it’s the American Jobs Act or routine highway infrastructure investments," the AFL-CIO said in a statement.
"Their austerity agenda concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, starves our nation of the funds needed to invest in our future, further deepens the wealth divide and chokes off any hope of a strong recovery."
However, not only do Republicans reject responsibility for slow job growth, they go off the deep end while trying to make President Obama look bad.
"We should be seeing numbers in the 500,000 jobs created per month," Romney said on Fox & Friends just minutes after the April numbers were released.
First of all Willard, in the past 50 years, the U.S. has created 500,000 jobs in a single month only five times: March 1978, April 1978, September 1983, September 1997 and May 2010. Four out of five of those months when 500,000+ jobs were add came under Democratic presidents -- Jimmy Carter (twice!), Bill Clinton and Barack Obama (ironic, isn't it, that the president Romney's been most critical of late, Jimmy Carter, is the only president to have presided over TWO 500K+ job creation months since 1962!)
Secondly, during the month when the fifth-worst U.S. president of all time, Republican George W. Bush, handed the presidency over to Barack Obama, America was LOSING 818,000 jobs. It was the worst monthly job loss during those same 50 years (1962-2012).
Where was Mitt then?
Romney also believes that unemployment should be under 4 percent. But what's his plan? More tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation. Why? Because all that worked so well under Bush! And for Britain, too.
As we reported yesterday, President Obama is favored to win re-election in November as long as the unemployment rate stays below 9.8 or 9.5 percent. Why? Because "no president has lost re-election when the unemployment rate dropped in the two years before the election."
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Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.1% as 342,000 workers dropped out of the labor force. At 63.6%, the portion of the working-age population participating in the job market is now at its lowest level since 1981
When Barack Obama entered office in January, 2009, the labor force participation rate was 65.7%, meaning nearly two-thirds of working age Americans were working or looking for work.
When the recession supposedly officially ended in June, 2009, the labor force participation rate was still 65.7%.
In the latest, much celebrated, unemployment report, the labor force participation rate had plummeted to 63.7%, the most rapid decline in U.S. history. That means that under President Obama nearly 5 million Americans have fled the workforce in hopeless despair.
The trick is that when those 5 million are not counted as in the work force, they are not counted as unemployed either.
If they were counted, the unemployment rate today would be a far more realistic 11%, better reflecting the suffering in the real economy under Obamanomics.
Meanwhile tea bagging republicans ignore the reality that the people they put into office create and whine about the delusions their over lords tell them.
Whom
Notice Melinda never mentioned all those companies that outsourced jobs or entire plants as being part of the problem? Notice how she never mentions her do nothing US House as being part of the problem. I would bet that President Obama would love to have the power to do all the things these righties blame him of not doing. I guess they believe he's a dictator.
And what about the House that ran the economy in the tank during the last two years of Bush and the first two years of Obama...yes, that's right...they were Democrats. Maybe having a do nothing House is better...
It was Obama's aide who said that they would be ready to RULE on day one...not lead...RULE. Sounds like they were thinking he would be a dictator before he even got into office.
It looks like the Repubs need to read Paul Krugman's new book, "End This Depression Now" that explains just how the Republican Party "masterminds" got us into this mess and just how to get out of it.
...and when we do get out of it, we all realize that we will be doing it without help from the Republican Party who have been bought and paid for by their friends like Mitt Romney, the Koch Bros. and ALEC!
The way to save America is to get it out of the hands of greedy, bigoted, women hating, .01% who think that Americans are to be bought and sold as an unregulated commodity!
Nobody thinks Barry is a dictator especially Republicans. He has very very little power. Just look at the promises he made to you liberals then look at what he's delivered. Not much. If you vote for him again we'll have 4 more years of gridlock. Republicans don't mind...we can afford to wait.
Yes Eugenie what's important for the party politically is of far more importance than what's good for the nation.
Three cheers for party over country.
Funny how the right wants the public sector to shed jobs yet when it becomes clear that shedding the aforementioned jobs hurts the economy it becomes the other side's fault wanting to indulge them
Not if the Repubs EVER...EVER... want to help lead in this country in the future!
Oh that's right, Frank Luntz; (Newts illegitimate political son) is YOUR RECKLESS LEADER...
He just needs a dumb ass like Mitty "who has ten digits" in the White House....I bet Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, not to mention (as Mitty has) "Russia" and "Czechoslovakia" are excited to see him running! LOL
Oh, and let us not forget, Paul Ryan and his heroine Ayn Rand, that greedy, simple minded atheist your Religiously Red Parry loves so well...I guess Ryan doesn't hate all women after all). LOL
By the way, that is "Mr. President" to you, "genie"!
Obamanomics beats the hell out of Robmeblindnomics!!
What about the keystone pipeline. Why is Obama aginst all the new jobs it would bring to the poor and middle class? What is wrong with him, us poor people need the jobs. Come on Obama we need the keystone pipeline, we meaning the other 99% not the 1%. You can talk the talk but how bout walking the walk. Actions are worth a whole lot more than words. Put some of us poor unemployed people to work. Pass the keystone pipeline please.
Did you know? half of the aforementioned pipeline is being constructed at this very moment. The northern half runs over a multistate aquifer and thus should it leak could contiminate the ground water for millions of people and american farms.
So it is sort of happening and won't produce many permanent jobs anyway nor will I expect this to improve gas prices
CC...isnt that part of the pipeline being completed because there is no federal jurisdiction to prevent it from happening? It is my understanding that the FEDS got to hold up the entire process because the pipeline crossed national borders, but the work being done is crossing state lines and thus does not need Obama's approval.
Do you know if that is right or wrong?
No I don't suspect that is the case the president gave a small presentation something on the lines of "I'm allowing this portion to happen, clearing red tape, to get this going" and so on so this tells me no this is not the case
clearly this is not without his approval if that were the case why wouldn't they have done it years ago
Obama promised unemployment wouldn't go over 8 percent, Steve, yet here we are, talking about it dropping under 9.8 percent, and that's with smoke and mirrors, by not counting people who have simply stopped looking after two or three fruitless years. Stop blowing smoke in our faces. All you have to do is look around your own community and you'll quickly conclude that real unemployment is closer to 25%, no matter what the cooked statistics and media spin say.
And Romney promised he would tell the American people the Truth -- Let me know when he starts
First of all OUR President made no such assertion.
Secondly, the unemployment rate was based on the numbers given by the Bush administration...the "cooked books" so to speak.
None of us knew the true wreckage and havoc the Republicans left this country in, when we finally got them the hell out of office!
Not to mention the pure obstruction and job destruction policy they have voted for since Jan 20, 2009!
With ALEC writing their laws, and the US Chamber of Commerce as their "corporate" heroes, what this country needs is charges of treason against the men and women who have worked as the puppets of the corporate take over of the United States of America!
The republican terroists - the House of Representatives are the reason the unemployment rate is what it is today. They have decided to say NO to all attempts by President Obama to stimulate the economy by a jobs bill.
Terrorepublicans have decided to crash our economy in order to win the right for a person in the white house to have an R in front of their name.
The election of 2010 is the greatest assault on America since 2001. Osama Bin Laden is dead and no longer a threat. Republicans are going to be sent home this fall so they can no longer be a threat to America.
Obama/Biden 2012 Forward not Backwards
Hello people hes against the keystone pipeline. Repuks are in favor of it, so in reality who is blockinG all the jobs the keystone pipeline would bring?
The republicans who are in favor of it are in favor of it because they campaign and or personal investments in the company making it. Half of the pipeline, the half which won't threaten anyone's ground water is under construction did you not get that memo.
So there will be a few short term jobs very good stable permanent ones
I dont give a damn a job is a job hello people. If you are in favor of jobs let it be bulit. Very hard for me to beleive that Obama is actualy for jobs when he is against this. Im sorry but actions speak loder than any of his words. Goining to be alot harder this time because he has 4 years of actions that I can look at and compare to his words. Its the same way with Harry Reed he talks alot of talk but when the house passes it he blocks it and dont even vote. I think it would behoove us greatly to look at actions and not just words.
All you Obama apologists, if real unemployment is somewhere between 20% and 25%, why can't Obama and his handlers bring themselves to simply admit it? Repairing the damage isn't going start until they come to grips with reality, and blaming Bush isn't coming to grips with reality.
Wow...what a surprise...the unions blaming Republicans...who would have ever thought that would happen?
Wow look a tea bagging republican blaming the unions for telling the truth about republicans. Who would have thought that republicans would do that.
"Surprise...Surprise...Surprise..."
The Republican Party NOT taking responsibility for any fault or crime they have committed against America, while simultaneously taking million$ from ALEC, the Koch Brothers, and any billionaire who will offer the "right" price!
For the record...Unions are the middle class!
By the way, UNIONS ARE MADE UP OF REPUBLICAN AND INDEPENDENT VOTERS along with DEMOCRATS!
Misinformation and pure ignorance used as a strategy for 2012...now there's a loosing game!
"Just Do The Opposite" who was the fool that thought up that one? Oh ya, that was Mitty wasn't it? LOL
Wow...whom makes another post without contributing anything...who would have ever thought that?
What is a loosing game?
Yeah..I bet all those Union Bosses who make 6 figure incomes are all middle class...
http://www.biglaborbailout.com/2012/04/25/union-boss-salary-hypocrisy/
Obviously you are a cheaper employee of Carl and the Koch Brothers.....Don't worry about the "Union Bosses six figure incomes".....They pale when compared to the nine and ten figured incomes of your employers who pay for you to spout your crap here!
Wow,,,another response without anything but nonsense...too bad you can't dispute my comments. I am surprised that you didn't throw in a tea bagger comment or a Faux news or another one of the typical liberal comments.
Trying to make out that the union heads are as bad as your hero CEO's makes you look like an foolish ass, what a surprise
Everyone should stop name calling Whom especially you sacrifice logic and credibility unnecessarily when you make such insults at folks. Everyone including myself gets a bit on edge and does this at some point but frankly I think you make a habit of it. So don't do that it isn't necessary. I believe many of Storm's ideas are stupid but if you want to say that you gotta say why you think that.
Now Stormy yes unions blame republicans for stuff. Guess who republicans blame? Unions!(surprising I know)
So makes no difference both are bit responsible in reality. Usually when have both sides blaming one another it means both are actually guilty to some extent. So in the spirit of randomly blaming people nad not really getting us anywhere I blame...Jimmy Fallon because I don't think he's funny. I'm since we've abandoned looking for solutions........washington better get it together or I'm afraid what will happen to them.......
Now on unions ksker is saying unions are made of middle class people not necessarily run by them that isn't what that statement is about
CC...
what makes the Union bosses that much better than the working middle class? Making 5-10 times more than the workers?
Storm I don't know and I could care less
when did I hint that I had any opinion about their pay?
What
The only way Romney will get the jobless rate down to 4% is to do some things I hope the public won't stand for.
All I can think of is the Chinese model, where ALL prisoners work in factories. Then there is the sudden upsurge in debtor prisons. Same strategy, I'm sure... put 'em to work for some company. I just knew that 'privatizing' prisons would come back on us at some point.
So, Granny has some issues with paying a bill. Gee, let's put Granny in a work-camp. I'm sure everyone will feel really good about that, huh ?
Let's not elect Romney... He'll make Hoover look good !
---from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Sounds like Mitt Romney talking to Obama.
News Flash : American's go off the deep end and demand that Vulture Capitalist Willard Mitt Romney get the [bleep] out of our country. He can go live wherever he keeps all the money and jobs that he ripped off of America while we try him in absentia for treason for deliberately destroying our society so that billionaire Right-Wingers can take it over and run it like a plantation.
Is that why as of now the National Polls show the Presidential Election a TIE!!!!
Which doesn't bode will for President Obama!!!!
So Hope,
"we try him in absentia for treason"
"deliberately destroying our society"
waiting patiently for your documentions but do not expect to see any
We never see yours, either.
By the way, what's a "documention?"
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 8.1% as 342,000 workers dropped out of the labor force. At 63.6%, the portion of the working-age population participating in the job market is now at its lowest level since 1981
I have provided a lot of documentation with my comments on this blog over the , years Melinda. As for your quote " documentation ". . . simply repeating Right-Wing rhetoric and talking points does not make it factual or truthful. I would bet you my next paycheck that I can provide equal and opposite proofs of what you say that you would not accept. A mind is like a parachute Melinda. It has to be open to work.
Obama Is Creaming Bush When It Comes To Jobs
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-jobs-lost-in-the-bush-and-obama-administration-2010-2?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
George W Bush Failure On Job Creation
http://www.bushtoll.com/
As of December, roughly two thirds of the jobs lost during Obama's presidency have been recovered.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/11/news/economy/obama_jobs_record/index.htm
The vast Right-Wing Conspiracy
http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2011/03/21/the-vast-right-wing-conspiracy-2011-less-vast-more-powerful/
Quick question righties so you apparently care about the country and the jobs problem so if Obama is going it wrong what would you do differently?
The thing is Cyincal, even though they live in denial of the Right-Wing, Social-Engineering agenda that has been being played out over the last 40 years, most Right-Wing droids actually know what is going on. They just don't let the facts or the truth get in the way of their rhetoric. And they continue to select against their own survival in doing so.
Cynical, I thought you knew. They would cut taxes for the wealthy, deregulate everything, defund everything, eliminate the minimum wage laws and child labor laws. After all, they have no clue as to how history proves none of that works. OH, forgot, dill more oil to give to the world market.
Larry
How's this sound? Let's have the rich pay 10X what you pay in taxes..............
Would you go along with that?
If they make 10x as much...you bet.
Guess he missed the report that while the top 400 1% families paid 16% of taxes while the working smuck pays 22%, that he expects to be in the top 1% some day shows what a smuck he is.
whom
Let me ask you a question.
What would rather have in your pocket? 22% of what Larry pays in taxes or 16% of what Romney pays.
Get the point? Probably not!!!
Hmmm....flat tax leanings there I see not ever a good idea hence you've never had one....
think for a moment if you might who dod you think you will be most affected of you say take 50% of what they have? Just as an example so take half of what Larry's got and half of what Romney's got right, so who's most affected.
Is Larry likely to get by if he only has half of what he has...could he be in the poor house.....could he be in the nice house....which one do you think is more likely?
Same Romney, if he only has half of what he has can still be in the nice or will now have to be in the poor house?
Point is each dollar you take from Larry is far more important than each dollar you take from Romney because Larry has much fewer dollars. So in order give Romney more money you have to tax Larry into poverty. Flat tax rate is a recipe for oligarchy
I see that cynical is one of those "punish success" types. What Larry needs should be provided by Larry and not Mitt. Mitt has several homes, several cars several maids and other housekeeping staff. I'm sure a typical Mitt vacation costs 5 times as much as the average American earns in a year. I'd say that Mitt "needs" a hell of a lot more than Larry.
Yup, 'ol Robme has all that and pays 15% (at least thats what he's admitting to) in taxes. 'Punish success'. Cry me a river ducky.
There would be plenty of jobs if the rethuglican's would concentrate on job producing legislation instead of trying to shut down planned parenthood!!!
KEYSTONE PIPELINE,Repuks are in favor. This is a fact, Obama is the one who shot it down. I can only call it like I see it. Obama is against the keystone pipeline which would hire many of unemployes people. Guess Canda is fixing to look somewhere else in which means jobs lost for us poor unemployed Americans.
U.S. Homeownership Hits Decade Low under Obama's lack of leadership
Obamas campaign slogan should be "Moving backwards"
Then slogan would the baggers use after all they want to take back the country from their fellow americans who they believe to be inferior
Romney's slogan should be "Moving to Switzerland! Thanks for all the money!"
LOL Chris !
Yes,the banksters threw Americans out of their homes, Romney is a job exporter, The Walmart mentality created jobs in China, and The President is to blame? The Bush tax cuts, continued by the Obama administration haven't created job one in this country. Lies; all the leaderless Repugnicans have to offer, won't help America!
I guess you could say that the housing market is "shovel ready" thanks to Barry.
"don't stop the foreclosure process, let the market bottom out"-from the creator of other economic ideas like "corporations are people too my friend", "some of my best friends are corporations", the banks are struggling just like you are, these cookies are from your local 7-11 bakery aren't they, let detroit go bankrupt.......america's favorite flip flopper Mitt Romney.
This is proof the Republican "solution" is not working. So public sector jobs are dropping substanciallly. Unemployement not significantly positively improving. So naturally it's Obama's fault for trying their solution, the one they created, and failing.
But in reality yes the dems and the president do share some of the blame for trying it their way in the first place. This president has wasted consdierable time bending over backwards to make the tea party half wits happy. Time to end that trend.
It's time to hire back the competent police, fire fighters, and teachers. It's time to stop pretending the spending cuts to handle the debt are paramount. It's jobs first not cuts. We need to be done with that, there's a time for everything and that's not now.
The tea party promised job creating measures, they have given us nothing. Nothing is not a job creating measure. Boehner where are the jobs. They've been creating no private sector jobs and they've been cutting public sector jobs. We see the results the cutting public sector jobs makes private sector jobs hypothesis has failed.
Mitt Romney what's your next cutting edge daring plan?
Hint:he has no new plans
Isn't romney one of the "job creators"? One of the wealthy people that given tax breaks will create jobs? Why doesn't hire 500,000 folks?
Here's an idea...
Why don't we just let old "Miracle Mitt" bring back the 750,000 jobs a month we were loosing that he and his party cost this country between 2007 and Jan. 2009!
The GOP lied when they privatized education, health care, and prisons. The greed of corporations doubled the cost to the USA. Then the tax cuts to the rich that cut job creation. Then the burden of paying taxes fell into lap of the poor and middle class. The GOP BIG government and money spending on overseas corporations leads to deficit and debt.
Every President throughout history, except for George Washington (duh), has had to deal with the previous administration's mess OR inherent blessings... unfortunately President Obama had to follow in the crap flow that Bush released on our country. We went from no debt to the worse debt in history under the Bush administration. The Obama administration has done the best job they could with what they were handed. Now, given another four years, maybe he can right the ship, get more people working, and continue the mess clean up.
I thought under the consitution that only congress can generate revenue bills etc- not the excutive- so how is that it is the executive branch fault for the whatever debt existed at the time President Obama to over?
Bush did illegally start the war in afghanistan, so that cost quite a bit he only went to congress after it had already started so that's one thing to note
but yes the destruction of the nation's finances has been a trully bipartisan excercise
I guess I was on another planet that day< Cynical. I remember Congress doing a "ceremonial" walk-out, and standing on the steps outside DEMANDING Bush do something about 9/11. They all had egg on their faces, when, about 6 hours later......SHOCK AND AWE rained down upon the Muslim Brotherhood. So, what part am I lying about this time??? Google is your friend...bet you can find it yourself.
This from a man who said let the auto industry go bankroup
I just thank the Lord Jesus Christ that only like, 300 people watch this show. You all are truly idiots,////// DONT WATCH FOX, FER CHRISSAKE, just watch something besides this fat ass windbag. You might just suprise yourselves, and learn something... love ya, mean it :)