Unemployment at 9.6%. Job loss 'far less than expected'

Today's job news wasn't great. But, the "good" news is that it wasn't as bad as expected:

U.S. employment fell for a third straight month in August, but the decline was far less than expected and private payrolls growth surprised on the upside, easing pressure on the Federal Reserve to prop up growth.

Nonfarm payrolls fell 54,000, the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial dropped by 114,000.

Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, increased 67,000 after a revised 107,000 gain in July. In addition, the government revised payrolls for June and July to show 123,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Obama will make remarks about these numbers at approximately 10:00 a.m. Read More......

Besides adding 3.3 million jobs and boosting growth by 4.5%, what else did the stimulus do?

Maybe John Boehner could tell us more since he's criticizing the stimulus so much. Washington Post:

President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.

In its latest quarterly assessment of the act, the CBO said the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points during the quarter ending in June and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. The higher figure would come close to making good on Obama's pledge that the act would save or create as many as 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.

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House passed bill to save jobs: 247 - 161

245 Democrats, joined by two GOPers [Cao (LA-02) and Castle (DE-AL)], just voted to pass the $26 billion bill to save jobs:

House Democratic leaders, intent on showing disenchanted voters their commitment to economic recovery, insisted on the one-day session to pass legislation they said would save the jobs of more than 300,000 teachers and other public service workers. Republicans shot back that Democrats would spend more money the government doesn't have while bowing to the wishes of teachers' unions.

The roll call vote is here. 158 GOPers and three Democrats [Bright (AL-02), Cooper (TN-05) and Taylor (MS-04)] voted no.

Twenty-five members (18 Rs and 7 Ds) didn't vote.

This legislation passed the Senate last week. Via Twitter, Speaker Pelosi reports, "President will sign tonight!" Read More......

July unemployment stayed at 9.5%. 131,000 jobs lost.

Not exactly great news about jobs. Overall, there was a job loss, but private employers added 71,000 jobs:

Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery.

Non-farm payrolls fell 131,000 the Labor Department said on Friday as temporary jobs to conduct the decennial census dropped by 143,000.

Private employment, considered a better gauge of labor market health, rose 71,000 after increasing 31,000 in June. In addition, the government revised payrolls for May and June to show 97,000 fewer jobs than previously reported.

Earlier this week, Tim Geithner said we're in a recovery.

Here's one analysis, via MSNBC:

“The good news here is we are not falling off a cliff; were getting job growth,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com, told CNBC. “But obviously this is not enough. If we don’t see better job growth later this year and next the recovery is in jeopardy.”

It really is about jobs, jobs, jobs.

Atrios says:

Maybe somebody should do something.

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Senate Dems. finally end GOP filibuster of unemployment extension

The GOPers won't have the unemployed to kick around on the Senate floor -- for awhile anyway.

With the help of new WV Senator Carte Goodwin and the two Mainers, Collins and Snowe, the Senate just ended the filibuster of unemployment extension. Ben Nelson voted with the GOP.

The vote was 60 - 40. Read More......

Alan Grayson on fire talking unemployment and Republicans

Must see:

Grayson is fearless and says what needs to be said. We're big fans of Grayson. He did a live chat with us a couple months ago and we've set up an ActBlue page for him. Help Grayson. Republicans would love to get him out of the House. He speaks the truth and they hate it. Read More......

Obama to GOP: Stop trashing and dissing unemployed Americans

President Obama just delivered remarks in the Rose Garden on unemployment stating that "it's so essential to pass the unemployment extension that comes up for a vote tomorrow."

Obama had three people standing with him who have been unable to find jobs even as their unemployment benefits have been or will be exhausted. And, he noted how the Senate GOPers have changed the tradition this time:

And, for a long time, there's been a tradition under both Democratic and Republican Presidents to offer relief to the unemployed. That was certainly the case under my predecssor when Republican Senators voted several times to extend emergency unemployment benefits.

But, Obama went further and noted the hypocrisy of the GOP Senators:

And, I have to say after years of championing policies that turned a record surplus into a massive deficit, the same people who didn't have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn't offer relief to middle class Americans...who really need help.

Obama also blasted the GOP talking point that people on unemployment don't want to work, "That attitude reflects a lack of faith in the American people."

Obama exposed just how craven the GOPers have been:

It's time to stop holding workers laid off in this recession hostage to Washington politics. It's time to do what's right. Not for the next elections, but for the middle class.

He asked Senators to put politics aside. Unfortunately, the current crop of Republican Senators, led by Mitch McConnell, never put politics aside. They'll sacrifice American workers who have lost their jobs -- and, then totally disrespect the unemployed by claiming they don't want to work. The President needs to keep hammering the GOPers for what they did to the economy and what they're doing now to hurt those most affected by the economic crisis.

With the addition of Senator Byrd's replacement, Carte Goodwin, the Democrats should be able to secure cloture with the votes of Maine's Snowe and Collins. Read More......

The real legacy of the economic crisis: The 99ers

In Washington, the debate about extending unemployment insurance is just another contentious political exercise. It's a game for the Republicans. Of course, Senators and their staffers have well-paying jobs with excellent benefits (all taxpayer funded, of course.) But, it's a harsh reality for the 99ers:

In the coming weeks, the Senate is expected to resume its debate about whether to extend the emergency jobless benefits that were passed in response to the steep increase in unemployment caused by the recession. But people like [Dwight Michael] Frazee, who have suffered the longest in the downturn, will not be part of that conversation. They are among the 1.4 million workers who have been unemployed for at least 99 weeks, according to the Labor Department, reaching the limit for the insurance. Their numbers have grown sixfold in the past three years.

The 99ers are glaring examples of the nation's most serious bout of long-term joblessness since the Great Depression. Nearly 46 percent of the country's 14.6 million unemployed people have been out of work for more than six months, and forecasters project that the situation will not improve anytime soon. Currently, the Labor Department says there are nearly five unemployed people for every job opening.

Frazee, 50, has applied for work at more places than he can remember since he lost his construction job two years ago. He has tried car dealerships, Kmart, Home Depot and the funky shops on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, near Toms River. He looked into becoming a commercial crabber, working in title insurance and as a bail bondsman. But no dice.

While searching for work, he lived on $585 a week in unemployment payments. But the checks were cut off in May when he reached 99 weeks. Now Frazee, who is married and has a 5-year-old daughter, is in a financial free fall with no safety net.

And, this should make all those Republicans who are blocking unemployment extensions very proud:

The longer he is out of a job, the more unemployable he feels. He suspects that potential employers are turned off by his age and by the fact that he has been out of work for so long. But he is moving near the top of the hiring list for his union. And in the meantime, he has been buying mail-order children's quartz watches from China and selling them on consignment at local convenience stores. He clears close to $3 per watch.

"I'm a union construction worker, but I think I can be a hell of a salesman," Frazee said. "A lot of the stores around here are owned by Indian Americans, and they like me. They're taking my watches. Maybe India and China are going to help me out of this jam if my country won't."

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Snowe and Collins side with McConnell over Mainers -- again

Yesterday, the Portland Press Herald had an editorial calling on Senators Snowe and Collins to support critical legislation on unemployment and Medicaid funding:

A scaled-down version of the jobs bill will resurface in the U.S. Senate as soon as today, and despite concerns about growing long-term deficits, Maine's senators should get on board.

The most immediate problem facing Maine and the nation is that the economy is growing slowly and producing too few new jobs. The failure to pass this bill now could result in public-sector layoffs that would add to our economic woes, not solve them. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe should find a way to vote "yes" on this legislation.

The bill would, among other things, provide aid to state Medicaid programs and take some pressure off budgets, including Maine's. The current state budget assumed that $84 million would be coming from Washington, as was approved in an earlier version of the bill passed by the Senate.

Too late. Before the paper with this editorial hit front doors around Portland, Snowe and Collins ditched the people of Maine to side with their obstructionist colleagues. Those two are the reason the Senate failed to invoke cloture on a bill that would deal with the issues identified in the editorial as affecting Maine.

Yep, on Thursday night, the fake moderates threw Mainers under the bus -- again. And, what's worse is that the duo had made a commitment to support cloture on that critically important jobs bill -- until Mitch McConnell intervened. Joan McCarter at DailyKos got the story on the nefarious and duplicitous actions of Snowe and Collins:

The states are waiting on $24 billion in federal aid to help supplement health costs, the loss of which could mean the loss of 900,000 more jobs. Why? Because of Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Joe Lieberman, and Ben Nelson. Nelson wants to see more offsets. Collins wants to cut out more state aid. Snowe is attached at the hip to Collins, and Lieberman is just an asshole.

A source close to the Hill tells me that as a compromise was being negotiated yesterday to finally pass the full bill, Collins and Snowe agreed to support cloture on the package. But McConnell met with the two of them before the vote and evidently whipped them back in line, possibly playing on Snowe's fear of getting a primary challenge from the Right. Lieberman would likely have voted with Snowe and Collins, making Nelson's opposition irrelevant.

Got that, Mainers? Apparently, Snowe and Collins don't care about the dire economic situation in Maine. Nope. They're more concerned about fealty to their GOP leader. And, what's clear is that Mitch McConnell now controls their votes.

Over the years, Snowe and Collins have built up a myth that they're independent voices in DC. That's BS. They're GOP hacks under the thumb of Mitch McConnell. When these two had the chance to help Mainers -- after it was well known that they had committed to vote for cloture -- they caved.

So, any Mainer who loses a public-sector job or loses unemployment benefits should hold Snowe and Collins responsible. It is their fault.

And, Mainers should also realize that the votes of their two Senators are now controlled by the Minority Leader from Kentucky. Now, of course, Mainers didn't vote cast their for McConnell, but he might as well be their Senator because Snowe and Collins let him dictate their votes. Snowe and Collins sided with McConnell and the insurance companies on health care reform, despite the serious problems with the insurance market in Maine. And, last week, the duo, as the dutiful GOPers they are, voted for Lisa Murkowski's Big Oil resolution despite the importance of the environment to Mainers.

What Snowe and Collins did this week would be pathetic if the real-life economic consequences weren't so dire. Instead, their actions are reprehensible. Read More......