Employment Will Strengthen; Bush Will Create New Net Jobs

Job growth isn't where we'd like it, but yes, Virginia, the fundamentals are strong:

Bush still has a net job loss since taking office of 313,000 and just two months to make it up. Many analysts believe he will escape the Hoover label, but just barely.

Ummmm, didn't we all hear the number "2.6 million lost jobs" bandied about just a short month ago?

...

That the election passed without a terror attack, and oil prices retreated from the record $55 per barrel highs of early fall also helped provide a boost to Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average finished last week on a winning note, helped by a 162-point gain Tuesday, the third largest one-day jump this year.

"Clearly, uncertainties have diminished. We are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel," said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis.

Sohn said he believed the economy would be able to create an average of 200,000 payroll jobs per month in 2005. That would compare to average monthly job creation of 185,000 this year.

Sohn and other analysts believe stronger job growth will occur as companies exhaust their ability to squeeze more work out of existing employees and finally begin hiring actively on a sustained basis. Still, analysts are not looking for the unemployment rate to move much.

Not quite cowbell-worthy. Sorry. That's just the way it f'n' is.

posted by Ace at 04:45 PM

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