Unemployment rate drops but most of the jobs created are temp jobs

From L.A. Times:

A burst of hiring of temporary census workers helped push down the unemployment rate in May, but the nation's private-sector employers added a mere 41,000 new jobs last month, the Labor Department said Friday.

The jobless rate edged down to 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April, but that was because the federal government added 411,000 jobs for the decade population count. Those jobs were expected and will disappear quickly over the summer.

Where are the green shoots?

So according to the BLS 431K jobs were created in May…41K were in the private sector and 390K were temporary government census workers. This is hardly good news particularly since this temporary bump will be short lived.

Based on employment patterns for the 2000 census, nearly all such census employment gains should reverse out of the data by the end of September, with June payrolls reflecting the first outright contraction in the reversal of current hiring.

Let's face facts, the "stimulus" was a very expensive joke that essentially pushed off the inevitable hardship that states are going to have to deal with sooner or later and that taxpayers are going to have to pay back with interest to China. And all the "green collar" jobs that Obama promised would save us all? It was all B.S. This is an epic train wreck.

The cold hard fact is that Obama's economic plan is not working and is not going to work: it's all a wealth transfer scheme while printing dollars in order to evoke the short-term Philips Curve. But this time, unlike other times, the coming (and current) tax burden to businesses and citizens due to massive debt is dampening economic growth.

Links for today

1) My weekly guest post over at The Bobo Files is now posted. Subject: Obama and his Big Labor friends are getting snuggly by the day.

2) The Independent Bloghorn has excellent economic analysis from STRATFOR, an international affairs organization, on China that is worth your time.

3) Just Politics has very interesting comments on unemployment benefits.

Where are the jobs?

Some California counties posting Depression era unemployment numbers. Where are the "green" jobs, Mr. Obama?

Blue state blues

Harrison Price has a nifty list of states with the highest unemployment rates. They also tend to be heavily Democrat.

I hope this does not come to pass

Twelve depressing reasons the unemployment rate will rise to at least 12% according to economist David Rosenberg.

The Pain Goes On

The national unemployment rate is now at 10.2%--highest since 1983. If the Obama regime believes that it is going to reflate the economy out of this recession without any consequences, they are going to have a rude awakening.

In other news, the state of California has started, on November 1st, withholding 10% more in taxes from workers to shore up the state's deficit. No debate amongst the public and little news about this in local papers. Another perfect example of how government looks out for itself and how it will always try to expand its power at all costs. So much for representative government.

Lost jobs may be gone forever

This is quite depressing as our national unemployment rate continues to rise.

(Graph is from the Wall Street Journal.)

As California goes, so goes the nation

California unemployment rate at 11.5%. Ah, wishing for halcyon days.

California unemployment rate hits 10.1%

"As California goes, so does the nation," is the saying around here. Decades of liberal economics have crippled the Golden State. Now we have a progressive President and a very liberal Congress. Notice how many powerful Californians--all Democrats--there are in Congress: Nancy Pelosi, Henry Waxman, George Miller, Jane Harman. If the Californian economy is a litmus test, you can bet that it will not end well for the country in several years.

Are you miserable enough?

Mark J. Perry at Carpe Diem provides us the following graph detailing the Misery Index. According to Perry, despite all the gloom and doom in the popular press, it looks like things aren’t as bad as described. We could be living though the malaise of the 1970’s or even the Great Depression of the 1930’s.

California unemployment at 6.2%

The unemployment rate here in California is third highest in the country. The current political impasse regarding the state budget will only get uglier and nastier. The state of California has an $8 billion budget deficit.

Update: According to the S.F. Chronicle today (4/20), the budget deficit may actually be at $11-14 billion.