Quote of the Day

"Can't wait to sink my teeth into the August jobs report..pile of garbage cooked up by partisan Bureau of Labor Statistics #Criminal."

Eric Bolling, Fox News host.

I asked Bolling on Twitter what law has been broken by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Accusing a federal government organization of breaking the law is a serious charge. Bolling has a responsibily as a member of the media to cite the law he believes was broken. Otherwise, he has no right to go on Fox News and say he is fair and balanced.

I asked Bolling on Twitter what law has the Bureau of Labor Statistics broken. Bolling has not tweeted a response.

Rick Scott's Let's Get Laid Off Program

Gov. Rick Scott tells supporters at the CPAC of Florida that government doesn't create jobs.

We’ve had plenty of success so far. Not enough…In Florida, unemployment rate’s gone from 12 percent down to 10.7. We’re still above the national average, but we’ve generated 87,200 private sector jobs — private sector! And we have 15,000 less government jobs in the state of Florida. [Applause] Government doesn’t create jobs.

Governor, the reason government isn't creating jobs is because you laid off 15,000 government workers. It takes a lot a hubris to brag about Florida's unemployment rate being at 10.7 percent. Especially when Scott ran on creating jobs.

Update: Scott is either ignorant or not being candid about private sector job numbers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Florida was second in mass layoffs for August. There were 961 mass layoffs of 50 or more employees in August. The question is how many of those layoffs were government workers

Why the Lame Duck Session is Important to Obama

Newt Gingrich went on cable news to show his compassionate conservative side. Gingrich declared unemployment insurance is "money for doing nothing." There are a lot of people not working because job growth has been miserable. The Department of Labor released the unemployment numbers. It ain't pretty.

The unemployment rate edged up to 9.8 in November, and nonfarm payroll was little changed (+39,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Temporary help services and health care continued to add more jobs over the month, while employment fell in retail trade. Employment in most major industries changed little in November.

This is why I laughed when Rick Scott said the Affordable Health care Act would be a job killer. Retail is affected when the economy takes a downturn. People have less money to spend. People get sick, regardless of economic conditions. Government money is being pumped into the private heal care system at a greater rate because of so-called Obamacare. The law will mandate millions of more Americans buying health insurance. This means more people getting check-ups and treatment. Scott didn't exactly turn down Medicare money when he ran Columbia/HCA. As the $1.7 billion fine levied by the Justice Department would indicate.

The lack of job growth has gotten so bad that Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernake in quietly asking Congress to pass more stimulus. It is unheard of for a Federal Reserve chairman to advocate the passage of legislation.

Treasury Sec. Tim Geithner is negotiating with Republicans on extending the tax cuts. Given the way the Obama administration has been horrible at negotiating it would not be surprising if no unemployment extension is passed. Repubicans are playing chicken with the Democrats. Wanna guess which side will win?

Sadly, Democrats have poll numbers supporting extending unemployment benefits and letting the tax cuts for those making above $250,000 expire. Bloggers Joy-Ann Reid and Benjamin Kirby will stress that progressives must support Obama even though the president is allegic to policies progressives support. (Not an exciting GOTV message for 2012). Progressives should not support Obama when his fiscal policies hurt millions of Americans.

Right now Obama has American support for ending the upper-income bracket Bush tax cuts and extending unemployment. The Fedrral Reserve chairman is publicly backing more stimulus spending. The lame duck session is Obama's best chance to accomplish these legislative priorities and he is negotiating away his best opportunity. Things will only get worse when John Boehner officially becomes House Speaker.

If Republicans snatch victory when Obama has the advantage then the only reason to support him is because he is not a Republican. Obama has the offer more than not being Sarah Palin if he wants to get re-elected.

9.4 Percent Unemployed in May

Via Steve Verdon: the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the latest unemployment numbers. National unemployment for May was 9.4 percent. 787,000 people lost their jobs in May. That brings the number of unemployed Americans to 14.5 million.

Here is a breakdown of the numbers.

Unemployment rates rose in May for adult men (9.8 percent), adult women (7.5 percent), whites (8.6 percent), and Hispanics (12.7 percent). The jobless rates for teenagers (22.7 percent) and blacks (14.9 percent) were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 6.7 percent in May, not seasonally adjusted, up from 3.8 percent a year earlier. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed temporary jobs rose by 732,000 in May to 9.5 million. This group has in-creased by 5.8 million since the start of the recession. (See table A-8.)

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) increased by 268,000 over the month to 3.9 million and has tripled since the start of the recession. (See table A-9.)

Adam Kress of Business Journal paints a more optimistic picture. The national unemployment rate moved higher again in May," Kress writes. "(B)ut the number of job cuts was far lower than in recent months." The reason for less jobs cuts is there are less people to lay off. The question is have employers reached the point when they can no longer lay off people.

Consumer confidence dropped by 2 points in the latest ABC News poll. The public still have doubts about spending there money. That means less new employees in retail, restaurants and manufacturing.

Vice-President Joe Biden told the media the White House plans to "ramp up" stimulus spending.

'We still have a long, long way to go in the road to recovery,' Biden said at the White House. 'And that's why on Monday the president and I will be announcing our plans to ramp up the Recovery Act implementation over the summer.'

I'm curious on what President Barack Obama will announce. The current economic landscape looks bleak. Stay tuned.

Recession Job Loss Chart

Time blogger Justin Fox made a chart of recession job loss threads. Fox's chart shows recessions from 1974 to present. The brown line represents the job losses from the current recession. Notice the currrent recession job losses are below the green line (recession of 1981.)

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports only 59.9 percent of the population is working. Retirees and children need to be taken into account. There is reason to expect the number to slip lower. Since November 2007, the BLS reports retail jobs have "declined by an average of 44,000 per month." 495,000 jobs have disappeared from the financial industry. 351,000 leisure and hospitality are gone. New jobs are not being created. The BLS numbers are the best argument for President Barack Obama's stimulus program. Trickle down tax cuts are not going to magically make jobs appear. Infrastructure project will.