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Joe Biden’s economic nightmare continues today with another strong jobs report from the Labor Department: The economy added 199,000 nonfarm jobs in November, and the unemployment rate dropped a bit, to 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent in October.
As we noted last month, October’s tenth-of-a-point increase in unemployment, from September’s 3.8 percent, had CNBC caterwauling about unemployment reaching “the highest level since January 2022,” so we’re certain this month’s 2/10 percent downtick (is that a word?) must have them in ecstasy. Let’s see!
Job creation showed little signs of a letup in November, as payrolls grew even faster than expected and the unemployment rate fell despite signs of a weakening economy.
Oh, get out of here. Fuck you guys. You assholes can’t handle good news, can you?
The unemployment rate declined to 3.7%, compared with the forecast for 3.9%, as the labor force participation rate edged higher to 62.8%. A more encompassing unemployment rate that includes discouraged workers and those holding part-time positions for economic reasons fell to 7%, a decline of 0.2 percentage point.
Surprisingly, that was not followed by any warnings that the planet might fall into the Sun and explode.
Average monthly wages were up a tad too, increasing .4 percent for the month, meaning more buying power as inflation eases. And the length of time people were unemployed dropped too, to an average of 19.4 weeks, the best since February of this year.
Also, in a rare moment for these reports, CNBC’s economist quote of the month didn’t manage to find any dark clouds on the horizon, like not even a little:
“What we wanted was a strong but moderating labor market, and that’s what we saw in the November report,” said Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, noting “healthy job growth, lower unemployment, and decent wage increases. All this points to the labor market reaching a natural equilibrium around 150,000 jobs [per month] next year, which is plenty to continue the expansion, and not enough to trigger a Fed rate hike.”
He probably got a terse note telling him to equivocate more. Good quote, Frick! Professor Prettypaws, our imaginary economist cat, purrs in contentment at your perspicacity, a word that should be about cats but is not. (Loyal Wonkette readers will know I’ve finally snapped when I start writing these monthly employment pieces entirely in the voice of an imaginary cat economist.)
So let’s check the Econoquote over at the New York Times for a contrast, shall we?
Most analysts have been surprised by the durability of the recovery, which owes a lot to the cash that consumers accumulated over the past few years. That has powered service-industry jobs even in the face of rising costs, the resumption of mandatory student debt payments and slowing wage growth.
“That’s the definition of a soft landing: It’s slowing slowly, which is what you want,” said Martin Holdrich, a senior economist with Woods & Poole Economics. He noted, however, that with strong productivity growth, the enduring tightness of the labor market needn’t prompt the Federal Reserve to continue increasing interest rates.
“These numbers do not indicate an overheated economy and shortages that will drive up inflation,” Mr. Holdrich said.
Well that’s pretty good, too! Sounds like we don’t need to panic about a Christmas Recession, then … and what’s this? Even Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo said the jobs report was “a big positive” and “we’ve got more jobs created than expected.”
Turning to Donald Trump’s former chief economist of the White House National Economic Council (But Not Larry Kudlow), Bartiromo added, “Joe LaVorgna, you’ve been saying this, the economy is a lot stronger than anybody understands.” (Boldface added by me, yep, you bet.)
Well then, Crom bless us, every one! Should be fun when emails leak showing some top Fox anchors demanding Bartiromo be fired for disloyalty.
[Bureau of Labor Statistics / CNBC / NYT / New Civil Rights Movement]
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