Unemployment Down, Opportunities Down

Fewest New Jobs Created In February In 2 Years, Thousands Leave Workforce

(CBS/AP)  The nation's unemployment rate dipped to 4.5 percent in February even as big losses of construction and factory jobs restrained overall payroll growth. Wages grew briskly.

The latest snapshot, released by the Labor Department on Friday, offered a mixed picture of the employment climate.

The slight decline in the politically prominent jobless rate, from 4.6 percent in January, came as hundreds of thousands of people left the work force for various reasons.

Employers, meanwhile, added 97,000 new jobs to their payrolls in February, the fewest in two years, as bad winter weather forced construction companies to slash 62,000 jobs, the most since 1991.

"The weather was pretty lousy, and it's hard to hammer nails when your fingers are freezing," Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss told CBS News. "Without that, it would have been a strong month."

Factories, feeling the strain of the troubled housing and auto industries, also continued to cut jobs.

Job gains in December and January turned out to be stronger than previously estimated, with 226,000 and 146,000 new jobs being created respectively.

The new tally of jobs added to the economy in February was close to economists' forecast for a gain of around 100,000. They had predicted the unemployment rate would hold steady at 4.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the trade deficit narrowed slightly in January as U.S. exports rose to an all-time high while imports dropped, sending a hopeful signal that the country's trade imbalances may finally start to improve this year.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that the gap between what America sells abroad and what it imports fell to $59.1 billion in January, down by 3.8 percent from a December deficit of $61.5 billion.

Workers' wages grew quickly last month.

Average hourly earnings rose to $17.16, a 0.4 percent increase from January. That was slightly faster than the 0.3 percent gain economists were expecting. Over the 12 months ending in February, wages grew by 4.1 percent.

Strong wage growth is welcome by workers and supports consumer spending, a key ingredient to the country's economic health. But a rapid pickup — if sustained and not blunted by other economic forces — can raise fears about inflation. Spiraling inflation would whittle away any wage gains, hurting workers' wallets, and isn't good for the overall economy, either.

The new employment figures come as President Bush continues to get lukewarm ratings for his economic stewardship. Just 41 percent of the public approves of the president's handling of the economy, compared with 57 percent who disapprove.

Democrats, who accuse Mr. Bush of not doing enough to close the gap on economic inequality, say a top priority is getting final agreement in Congress on legislation to boost the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 an hour. The wage hasn't budged for nearly 10 years. Democrats also are pushing legislation making it easier for workers to start unions against company wishes.

Although construction companies and factories eliminated jobs last month, other employers, including health care providers, financial firms and retailers boosted hiring.

"I think outside of the construction sector, we're still seeing pretty good strength in the job market. Things look pretty solid," said Wyss.

Analysts expect the unemployment rate, which dropped to a six-year low of 4.6 percent last year, will creep up this year as economic growth slows. Some believe the jobless rate could climb to close to 5 percent by the end of this year. The economy expanded by 3.3 percent last year, the best showing in two years. Growth, however, is expected to ebb to around 2.7 percent for all of 2007.

The improvement in the trade deficit came despite the fact that the politically sensitive deficit with China shot up by 12 percent to $21.3 billion, a development certain to increase pressure on the administration to deal with what critics see as China's unfair trade practices.

Exports of goods and services rose by 1.1 percent to an all-time high of $126.7 billion in January, reflecting gains in sales of American airplanes, computers and farm products such as soybeans and wheat.

Imports declined a slight 0.5 percent to $185.8 billion. Shipments of foreign cars, clothing, televisions and toys and games all were down. These declines offset a 5.4 percent increase in America's foreign oil bill, which rose 5.4 percent to $24.5 billion in January.

The trade deficit has set records for five straight years, reaching $765.3 billion in 2006 with one-third of that amount accounted for by the imbalance with China, which jumped to $232.5 billion last year, the largest trade gap ever recorded with a single country.

Those rising trade deficits have come as America has lost 3 million manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office in January 2001, losses that critics blame in part on the soaring trade deficits.

[bm6005]

notblue

What a Maroon! Obviously your job hasn't gone to Asia, yet. Call back after that and give us your opinion!

[notblue]

Historic unemployment rates. The most prosperous country in the free world with per capita income unrivaled. The greatest standard of living on earth but that's not going to be news with a Republican as president. Once again CBS does not dissapoint with there left slanted news reporting. There won't be any good news to report until the CBS mission is accomplished and a Democtrat is president. Then once again prosperity will return to the land.

[omega39-2009]

An interview with economist John Williams

What they did was redefine %u201Cunemployment.%u201D They created
a category of unemployed called %u201Cdiscouraged
workers.%u201D If you were unemployed and you%u2019d given up
looking because there was no work to be had, you were
counted as a discouraged worker%u2014but taken out of the
unemployment count. They still counted you, at least,
until the Bill Clinton Administration, when they said,
%u201CWell, we really need to define discouraged workers%u2014so
if anyone has been discouraged for more than a year,
we%u2019re just going to take them out of all the numbers,
take them out of the workforce completely%u201D. In doing
so, they knocked about 5 million unemployed out of the
broader measures of unemployment. Today there are
seven or eight unemployment measures that are published
each month. The one they call U-3 is the popularly
followed one. The broadest one right now is U-6,
which is running up around 9%. But, as I mentioned, if
you take out all the funny games that they%u2019ve played with
it, unemployment is really up around 12%.

http://www.weedenco.com/welling/Downloads/2006/0804welling022106.pdf

[ander241]

For the life of me I can't understand how figures come out everywhere as "unemployment down" except to check the unemployment offices. That is totally inaccurate. Many of us are *** laude graduates with masters degrees and writing credits, etc. and can't get a job. Thousands are laid off from their jobs constantly because no one can afford to pay the top CEO salaries in the companies that lay them off unless they lower the salaried people. Imports are lower because American jobs are outsourced for $1.50 and sold by American companies for $500 and no one has those jobs here anymore and can't afford the items when they are returned to this country. There is no logic here. The only time I can see that jobs go up is for the manual labor types. There are plenty of construction jobs in New Orleans and they are overpriced jobs with overpriced materials since Katrina. No one can afford to get their homes repaired. Gimmee a break! Joblessness is at an all-time high. The news outlets just don't know how to get the facts right.

[bm6005]

No one's ever accused me of being tolerant. I won't stand for it! I'm non-PC dude so get over it!

[bm6005]

Maybe lackofperception5 is unemployed also. He'd count as the upper portion wouldn't he? You know junkyard dog level.

[perception5]

God, you're just all over CBS boards with the same ***! I know where you can get some professional help. You certainly need it, loser!!
Posted by bm6005 at 01:53 PM : Mar 09, 2007

...Thanks bm6005 for the typical liberal hate comments.....you are so tolerant......have a nice day...

[bm6005]

maiingan

I agree with you. I'm a laid off engineer and I'm not bothering to look at all, too close to retirement. But I do believe it would be interesting to count all of us to get an accurate picture of what our pols have done to this once manufacturing powerhouse. I'm really happy tho for all those Asians who now have our jobs!!

[bm6005]

Corrupt and liberal reporting.......You decide.!
Posted by perception5

God, you're just all over CBS boards with the same ***! I know where you can get some professional help. You certainly need it, loser!!

[perception5]

Isn't interesting how CBS manages to hide the "unemployment" news when the rate goes down like it did last month to 4.5%.

YET the last time it went from 4.5% to 4.6% CBS showcased it at the top of their web page...

Corrupt and liberal reporting.......You decide.!

[maiingan]

There is a problem every time media reports things like 'fewer people in labor force.' People who have run out of unemployment compensation are not counted as being in the labor force even those who want jobs desperately. Presumably, when one runs out of unemployment compensation, the stats assume you've left the labor force. Baloney! I've run out of unemployment comp, desperately need a job, but have never seen any notice to check in with some government statistician to be counted as still in the labor force. And I have a college degree and no crime or drug record. Government does not want to count long-term unemployed because is would shed light on the ugly truth about unemployment here. And the wonder what's keeping wages down. It's the "reserve army of the unemployed" (Marx).

[us_infidel]

Blah, blah, blah.......same paleolib BS.....unless they're talking about the heads of CBS News. That crew does seem to change quite a bit. Still can't seem to get it right, though. Pity that.

[omega39-2009]

Conventional wisdom used to suggest that you needed to create 250 thousand jobs monthly just to keep up with the number of people entering the labor force. That all changed under Bush where minimal job creation along with repeated headlines of tens of thousands of job cuts results in some of the lowest unemployment of all time.