Two very different takes on the jobs report
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/05/art.jobs1105.gi.jpg caption="Republicans quickly responded to the latest jobs report Friday."]
Washington (CNN) - The White House calls Friday's unemployment report a hopeful sign of an economic recovery, but warns that "there are many bumps in the road ahead."
The nation's jobless rate dropped to 10 percent in November, the Labor Department reported. The unemployment level stood at 10.2 percent in October, the highest rate in more than a quarter century. The Labor Department also reported that employers cut 11,000 jobs last month, the lowest amount of jobs lost in a month in nearly two years.
"Today's employment report was the most hopeful sign yet that the stabilization of financial markets and the recovery in economic growth may be leading to improvements in the labor market," says Christina Romer, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, in a statement on the White House website.
But Romer warns that the unemployment level "remains unacceptably high," and says "the monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. But, it is clear we are moving in the right direction."
The release of the unemployment report comes as President Obama travels to Allentown, Pennsylvania to begin what the administration calls a "White House to Main Street" tour on jobs and the economy. Thursday the president held a jobs forum at the White House.
A very different message this morning from one of the top Republicans in Congress.
"After yet another month of job losses, it's clear that one question President Obama is sure to get on his 'listening tour' is: 'Where are the jobs'?" says House Minority Leader John Boehner, in a statement.
While the Republican from Ohio says the decrease in the unemployment rate is encouraging, he says "anyone who views today's report as cause for celebration is out of touch with the American people, especially when Washington Democrats' policies – whether it's a government takeover of health care, a national energy tax, or 'card check' – are already costing jobs and will pile even more debt on our kids and grandkids."
Follow Paul Steinhauser on Twitter: @psteinhausercnn
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More failed talking points from the GOP; the party of 'epic fail.'
Looks like Republican idiots will have less to criticize the President with. Great. By the elections the economy will have gotten better and employment will be back.
Sorry Repubs. You're going to get trounced further in 2010.
Obama/Biden 2012
I am so glad for all the people that have such a tough time and the many that lost their job that things start to look up. Obviously, it cannot be fixed overnight, but, I do congratulate the President and all the good people (in the workforce and employers that are innovative) that work so hard to make this happen. I do not even want to imagine what it would look like if Mc Cain/Palin where in the White House! Just “wink, wink” and “No” and the stupidity one hears out of that part of the woods would have deepened the disaster of the Bush years and we would be looking at 20% unemployment with the advice: Just wait until the wealth trickles down. If you do not have the time, write a book!
If my count is right I believe this is the 187th day in a row that we have been told the economy is recovery....This is just a thought, all be it a rational one not media driven, but could the drop in numbers be a result of the temporary holiday job placements and govt. offices closed due to the holiday. Lets see what the results are in Jan/Feb when budgets are made and the holiday retail season is over.
I think that it is great that the economy is taking a turn for the good instead of the bad. Things were really beginning to look bad and everyone was thinking there was no hope. Although, this may mean more debt the country needed to have a feeling of relief. Hopefully, the rates will continue to drop and things will turn out good.
"anyone who views today's report as cause for celebration is out of touch with the American people,
Of course no one is viewing the (slight) drop in unemployment as cause for "celebration" as Rep. Boner, errr Boehner, is trying to infer! But, it IS a (slight) positive indicator that the economy and unemployment are improving. Enough? Of course not! But it is STARTING.
If there are 11,000 fewer jobs available in November than in October, then how can the actual unemployment rate decline? By definition it cannot, therefore the real news here would appear to be that the jobless rate declined bcause these people gave up on finding a job.
0.2% give me a break, 1 in 10 Americans is still unemployed...
And one more thing, if you please CNN.
If Rep. Boehner and his obstrcutionist friends in Congress had been as diligent with their over-sight on the spending of President Bush as they have been President Obama, we wouldn't be facing 10% unempoyment TODAY! Hypocrites one and all.
The first thing that should be done is to kill off the tax breaks that allowed corporations to move jobs overseas effective now, Second give a tax credit to any business that hires a new employee or brings back jobs to the US.
I was beginning to worry. Now that more people are working, there are going to be more taxes collected, which means I'm still going to get all my free stuff. NO WAY was I going to get off my butt when some rich guy can pay for me. Have a nice day!
I told you I have fullest confidence in pres. obama....I shall vote for him next time too....I have already decided....he is doing finest job after nation was collapsed by nasty pres. George Bush.....
This can be spun either way but the bottom line is that it is still way too high.
A number of signs are showing that we made the right choice for president last year. While we are not out of the woods completely, it is good to see the market up, goods orders up, Bank of America paying back the taxpayers, and a slight decrease in jobless rate. This is in addition to an end of torture, moving to close Gitmo, and bringing the unnecessary war Iraq to a close.
It is disgusting that the party of "No!" refuses to help the American people.
It is time to kick a right wingnut for being so stupid and anti American.
Where are the jobs? Bush sent them overseas.
My head is spinning in wonderment. People claim they DON'T want government intervention in their lives. "Obama wants to run everything" the teabaggers and their ilk claim. Yet.....they expect Obama (the gov't) to hand deliver a job to them as if this was part of their birthright! Some of you people are nothing but a bunch of do-nothing, lazy, opportunist, rabble-rousers, perfectly content taking everything the gov't will give you while complaining for more every step of the way.
Where is the report on the global warming emails that I've read on other websites?? Aren't you going to report about it??? bk
I am sure the new 10 principle communist republican party will do everything to take us back to the edge of a major depression.
Wow, John Boehner accusing others of being out of touch... if that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is. The Republican Party is so out of touch that they continue to cling to the "cut and spend" mentality that put us here. Cut taxes, reducing the income of the government, and increase spending, increasing the outgo of money. Even a 5 year-old child can see there is no logic in that position.
Time to realise what you are selling, Boehner. A big, empty sack.
More jobs were cut but all the mainstream media want to talk about is how Obama saved the country.
Britain's Prime Minister tried that last year and now Gordon Brown is having it come back to bite him.
House Minority Leader John Boehner is a dufus. Republicans don't want to see a silver lining in anything when a Democrat is in a position of power. It's bad for them in the next election if unemployment improves. They would cheer if the unemployment rate got worse right now. Instead, the loss of jobs this month was an improvement over last month, and they turn that into a negative. What's the garbage he was saying about a govt takeover of health care costing us jobs? More proof of his dufusness, since no govt takeover of health care has begun yet. How could it have cost any jobs already?