(Image Source: Conservative Daily News)
BY JIM FLINK
ANCHOR MEGAN MURPHY
Euphoria.
With a healthy dose -- of skepticism.
That’s the reaction to the latest unemployment numbers.
The New York Times has the headline from the Labor Department.
“The private sector remained the engine of new job gains. While federal agencies and local governments continued to lay off workers, private-sector employers added 257,000 jobs in January. The industries with the biggest gains were manufacturing, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality.”
The jobless rate fell to 8.3 percent -- its lowest rate in three years.
It’s also the fifth straight monthly decline in unemployment -- giving some analysts hope -- this is a sustained economic recovery.
An analyst for Bloomberg says, other numbers tell an even bigger story.
“But we had an enormous increase in the number of people who got jobs in the household survey -- 847 thousand people where unemployment fell by 339 thousand.”
Of course, skeptics will point to the fact, these numbers often get revised. And -- need more analysis to truly comprehend.
Some CNBC analysts wonder -- if U.S. employers are simply turning a blind eye to the elephant in the room -- the European economy -- which is still in dire straights.
“An now, I don’t even know what we think about Europe after this.”
“No, it’s still in recession.”
“Europe’s got problems.”
“Yeah.”
“But it doesn’t matter to us.”
“Well, Q4’s negative, and Q1’s negative.”
“No, the thing is, there’s no spillover.”
Still -- it should be noted -- the sobriety of some numbers still resonates through the economy.
“There are still 12.8 million people out of work, though that is the fewest since the recession ended. An additional 11 million are either working part-time but would prefer full-time work, or have stopped searching for jobs. When all those groups are combined, nearly 24 million are considered “underemployed.” (The Washington Post)
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