It’s good news because it’s actual employment growth rather than people quitting on looking for work. Does it change things in a huge way? Doubtful. But having the unemployment rate at its lowest level of Obama’s presidency at this stage can’t hurt.
Both will be the talking points, IMO. In fact probably the biggest talking point will be whether the jobs report kills Romney’s debate momentum, neither the jobs report itself or the debate.
BTW, I get the feeling that while Romney won the debate he is losing the post-debate debate.
It just takes another issue away from Romney and at this point he needs all the help he can get. At this point Romney needs not to just persuade uncommitted voters he needs to actual persuade those who say they have made up their mind. This will do nothing to convince either group.
Now he’ll claim that the jobs are picking up because employers are certain that he’s going to win. After all, there were going to be jobs created just because he was elected… guess employers are so sure that he’ll win that they’re hiring now! Wahooo… Romney… pure magic just like his under-roos!
Hmmm… after he threw the entire Tea Party platform under the bus in that debate… he may have persuaded some voters who thought they’d made up their mind. Some may just stay home out of disgust.
I don’t think so. Maybe it’s just me, but it really looks bad to see Obama energetically giving prepared remarks, responding to the very things he was unable to respond to at the actual debate. It says that with a script, he’s a million bucks. Without one, he’s nothing.
His handlers will coach him on what to say in the next debate, and he’ll do fine so long as Romney doesn’t say anything he’s not coached to respond to.
Just come off watching CNBC while on the treadmill. A few more snippets:
[ul]
[li]Average work week was up by 0.1 hours[/li][li]Average incomes up 0.3%[/li][/ul]
Both of these are good news.
More bizarrely, some people are questioning whether the numbers have been manipulated. I have not seen this claim from any Republican politician. The person making the most news is Jack Welch, with his tweet.
The conspiricy nutters are already out in full force this morning with Ex-GE CEO Jack Welch leading the charge on Twitter:
And when Obama accepted an invitation to the GOP House Issues Conference, and subsequently spent the better part of 90 minutes embarrassing them, that was what, then?
It’s not bizarre at all. I saw people predicting it online before it even happened. We’ve seen this over and over again with Republicans lately: when Romney fell way behind in the polls, they said the polls were biased. When the jobs report looks better, the jobs report was manipulated. Unfavorable facts are now essentially impossible for hardline conservatives, which is good news for their self-esteem considering where things are going but bad news for debate or rational policy discussion.
Since the September jobs report was being discussed in a new thread by iiandyiiii and Fiddle Peghead’s older thread, I’ve merged the two threads and expanded the thread title.
Big deal - there are a LOT of Republican politicians who embarrass the GOP.
Let’s hold off on evaluating how good this news is until Obama quietly revises the numbers downward next month like he has every jobs report.
“predictable” and “bizarre” are not mutually exclusive. I predict that at some time between now and Obama’s (re)inauguration, Donald Trump will raise questions about his citizenship.
Obama doesn’t revise the reports and the reports for July and August were revised upwards. Otherwise, this is a good point.
a) Obama has no control over the numbers, although you may not believe that
b) today’s jobs report revises the numbers upward, thereby immediately contradicting your final remark.
Beaten to it by Marley23. Does that guy never take a break and give the rest of us a chance?
Actually, July and August were revised upward after the fact. After the initial August report unemployment was at 8.3%. It was lowered after the fact to 8.1% after the Labor Department found more jobs it hadn’t included.
Actually I started the new thread. And since we’re talking about the September job report, shouldn’t that be in the thread title?
I resurrected the original thread (as I did also after the August report). I don’t think there should be any month in the title. This has become an ongoing thread about jobs reports and the election, updated each month as a new report comes out. I may resurrect it again on November 2nd, but not after the election.