Another new month and another terrible jobs report.
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) — More Americans than anticipated filed jobless-benefit claims last week, indicating companies remain focused on cutting expenses as the economy emerges from its worst recession since the 1930s.
Applications fell by 4,000 to 570,000 in the week ended Aug. 29, exceeding the 564,000 median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance climbed.
The firings are one reason economists project consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy, will be slow to strengthen.
Continuing claims jumped by 92,000 in the week ended Aug. 22 to 6.23 million. The unemployment rate among people eligible for benefits, which tends to track the jobless rate, rose to 4.7 percent in the week ended Aug. 22 from 4.6 percent the prior week.
Sentiment might improve if Americans could identify some evidence of pro growth policy in the initiatives of President Obama and his Democratic cohorts in Congress. Unfortunately, the mish mash of policy band aides like cash for clunkers and the soon to expire first time home buyer tax incentive are short term fixes that do nothing to motivate employers to make long term investment plans that are necessary for sustained employment recovery. As Kevin noted below, a massive increase in government jobs does not solve the problem, it is the problem. Government jobs do not create new wealth. Only the private sector that pays all of the taxes create wealth. Where do liberals think the money comes from?
The continued joblessness of millions of Americans is the issue that will doom Democrats in 2010 because they have offered no fiscal policy incentives for private sector job growth.
