These days, when newspapers are as desperate as any other business to see
economic growth, it pays to take no notice of sub-editors but to carefully
read the article itself. From today's Financial Times. (Incidentally, a
video interview with Nouriel Roubini is poked into the middle of the
website article. I found his accent hard to follow but what I think he said
was: "We are not in a double-dip. It walks like a double-dip, it sounds
like a double-dip, so I guess we are in a double-dip." )
Keith
US jobs data allay double dip concerns
By Robin Harding and Edward Luce in Washington and Alan Rappeport in New York
Published: September 3 2010 13:59
Fears of a double-dip recession in the US were allayed on Friday by data
showing that the private sector had created 235,000 jobs in the past three
months.
The addition of a better-than-expected 67,000 private-sector jobs in August
and upward revisions to data for the previous two months ends a run of bad
data that had fed fears that the US economy could slip back into recession.
But jobs creation is still not strong enough to match population growth or
boost the feeble economic recovery. That means unemployment will remain
high, adding to the political pain for the administration of President
Barack Obama amid predictions that his Democratic party could lose control
of Capitol Hill in Novembers elections.
There's no quick fix to the worst recession we've seen since the Great
Depression,Mr Obama said. The economy is moving in a positive direction,
jobs are being created, they're just not being created fast enough given
the big hole that we've experienced.
The unemployment rate rose from 9.5 per cent to 9.6 per cent as 114,000
temporary census workers were laid off -- causing overall payrolls to fall
by 54,000 -- and more than half a million people joined the labour force.
The report comes ahead of a renewed effort by the White House to persuade
voters that it is focusing on the economy.
The White House is shortly expected to unveil a package of measures that is
designed to boost waning growth, which it insists will not be a second
stimulus.
Whatever Mr Obama proposes is highly unlikely to pass Congress before the
November elections. Jobs growth is essential for sustaining the recovery
because it helps boost consumer spending. The payrolls number comes after a
run of data in August that suggested that the recovery might stall.
I think the key word is 'reassuring'. This should allay fears that America
was heading for a double-dip recession,said Paul Ashworth, senior US
economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
Investors were heartened by the data. The S&P 500 ended 1.3 per cent higher
at 1,104.51, up 3.8 per cent over the week
Keith Hudson, Saltford, England
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