From Reuters
US Payrolls Fall Sharply as Jobless Rate Rises to Highest Level since Nov. 2001

Is Clinton to blame? Saddam? 9/11? The cold snap? Snow (Tony or what's been battering the East Coast)? The ghost of Gore's beard? The Democrats' sending of bad thoughts towards W.? Ossaddama? Steinbrenner or Selig? Pete Rose? The evil karma of Nixon? Donald Rumsfeld's emotionalism? Reuters? Wetnaps? Total economic incompetence by the administration???

[ March 07, 2003, 09:00 AM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

Oh no, fantomas - it must be El Nino and his partner (Heavens! Livin' in sin with a safety pin!*)! eek!

*from the Drew Carey Show [theme song]

More bad news, issued on late on Friday/early Saturday of course, so as to keep the market from plummeting.

Daniel Altman: 308,000 Jobs Lost in February

Several favorite quotes from this article:

"The numbers from the Labor Department showed the disappearance of 308,000 jobs from the nation's payrolls. The Bush administration called the figures disappointing but said they showed the need for quick action on the president's plan to cut taxes.
****
"The Bush economic plan has left this country unprepared for the economy of the future and without a strategy to spur meaningful economic growth," Representative Richard A. Gephardt, the Missouri Democrat who is running for president, said in a statement. Tom Daschle, the Senate minority leader, released a statement accusing President Bush of having "turned our economy into a job-destroying machine."
****
"Despite the confounding effects of the weather, at least one trend remained unmistakable: the manufacturing sector continued to lose jobs. In February, the number of jobs in manufacturing dropped below 11 million, in seasonally adjusted terms, for the first time since February 1946."

THE FIRST TIME SINCE FEBRUARY 1946! Now, we have had recessions, economic black ice patches, what have you, but this is quite a statement. 1946, over half a century ago, shortly after the end of World War II.

Is there any more proof anyone needs that Bush is driving this economy into the ground?

[ March 07, 2003, 11:40 PM: Message edited by: fantomas ]

fantomas,

is unemplyment really that high? or is it that the stock market is in the toilet?

**CLARIFICATION**

Sorry, it was unemployment........
Also, manufacturing jobs have been on the decline for years as we have moved towards a more service oriented economy. It is a little surprising that it's at 1946 levels. I think we can thank NAFTA for a lot of the manufacturing jobs going south to Mexico. I know first hand, living in the FORMER Rust Belt, that there has been a huge loss of manu. jobs to Mexico. Most recently a TV tube plant=Mexico and a crayon factory, operating since the 1800's, to MEXICO. Fortunately, the auto manu. jobs have stabilized, but the union guys are still blasting NAFTA. Whose to blame? NAFTA was passed with republican support and signed by Clinton!

Mind you, this is work that, once delegated to the international pipeline, is gone forever.

The manufacturing work is leaving to Mexico, and a good deal of the IT/computer science work is leaving to India, if not all of Asia (my hunch: Singapore and Malaysia).

BTW: the IT tasks that cannot be sent abroad are creating a demand for 1000's of Asian (and, of course, all qualified workers - but a great number of them Asian Indians) workers to come here to serve in NYC, Silicon Valley, and in the research/biotech centers around the nation.

- - - - -

Gist: It's one thing to say things like, "The jobs are going to Mexico", or "my programming gig is being sent, by modem, to Hyderabad (India)", but what people AREN'T SAYING (except in academia) is that the economy is changing to a set of circumstances that are going to be foreign to many Americans and the resulting scenario promises to be an unscalable (academic) mountain for those who are not prepared to suffer the training necessary to stay desirable in this decade's job markets.

If they don't know about it, how can they prepare for it? frown

[ March 08, 2003, 06:12 AM: Message edited by: bluebird48234 ]