Weekly Address: America's Resurgence Is Real

[cal04]

Source: White House

In this week’s address, President Obama discussed the economic gains we made in 2014, which was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s.

In the coming weeks, the President will continue to preview his State of the Union address and the agenda he’ll put forward to build on that progress. The President will showcase ways he’s working to help every American get ahead in the new year, like plans he announced this week to make community college free for two years, make mortgages more affordable and accessible for creditworthy families, and support manufacturing.

Read more: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/01/10/weekly-address-america-s-resurgence-real-and-we-re-building-progress-we-ve-made

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Hi, everybody. About a year ago, I promised that 2014 would be a breakthrough year for America. And this week, we got more evidence to back that up.

In December, our businesses created 240,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate fell to 5.6%. That means that 2014 was the strongest year for job growth since the 1990s. In 2014, unemployment fell faster than it has in three decades.

Over a 58-month streak, our businesses have created 11.2 million new jobs. After a decade of decline, American manufacturing is in its best stretch of job growth since the ‘90s. America is now the world’s number one producer of oil and gas, helping to save drivers about a buck-ten a gallon at the pump over this time last year. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, about 10 million Americans have gained health insurance in the past year alone. We have cut our deficits by about two-thirds. And after 13 long years, our war in Afghanistan has come to a responsible end, and more of our brave troops have come home.

It has been six years since the crisis. Those years have demanded hard work and sacrifice on everybody’s part. So as a country, we have every right to be proud of what we’ve got to show for it. America’s resurgence is real. And now that we’ve got some calmer waters, if we all do our part, if we all pitch in, we can make sure that tide starts lifting all boats again. We can make sure that the middle class is the engine that powers America’s prosperity for decades to come.

That’ll be the focus of my State of the Union Address in a couple weeks – building on the progress we’ve made. But I figured, why wait – let’s get started right now.


more at link
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/10/weekly-address-americas-resurgence-real

[joshcryer]

1. It is.

And that's why Clinton's platform will be on Americans not being so self-critical and appreciating its achievements. It'll come at an opportune time, as the millennials are already at the lowest point of their existence thanks to the boomers.

Good times lay ahead.

[Cha]

2. mahalo cal.. and oh yeah. Thanks Obama!

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Good morning and thanks for the weekly posting!

Got to hear it on the radio here this morning. The stats that he ticked off were impressive - notably considering where we were when he was inaugurated, having lost 750,000 jobs in that very inaugural month of January 2009, with the stock market bottoming out at 6000 just a few months later, and threats of a "certain double dip recession" to come on the heals of the first. We are still not there by any means. Too many people are suffering (I have 2 close family members either out of work or soon to be) and we are all pitching in to help.

One could now add the drop in gasoline prices that has made such a difference for many of us. I'm paying about 30% less per gallon from what I was paying (on average) the past year. That little extra can go to pumping back into the economy in other sectors.

Thanks Obama!

[Demeter]

4. If this is the recovery, I'd sure hate to see the Crash

Actually, I did see the crash...a rolling series of crashes...that continues to this day.

[Fred Sanders]

5. The Crash would be 20% unemployment, not 5.6. Remember when it was over 10 most recently?

Hate to see that again.

Thanks, Obama.

[RBInMaine]

8. Must you be a Debbie Downer? Please, get on an upper.

[progree]

6. The job numbers over the past year and since February 2010

Every time the monthly job numbers come out, there is extreme scrutiny of the latest month. However, many of the numbers, especially the Household Survey numbers are very volatile from month to month (in other words a large part of the changes are statistical noise). So to see the real trend, it helps to look at longer periods. I think the trend is pretty good, not precisely exactly a series of rolling crashes:

In the below, the "%" means percentage points, e.g. "+0.6%" means an increase of 0.6 percentage points.

Over the last year (last 12 months):
+2,952,000 Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, CES0000000001)
+1,082,000 Labor Force
+2,771,000 Employed (yeah!)
-1,688,000 Unemployed
+0.6% Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate (woo hoo!)
-0.1% LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) (ughh)
-1.1% Unemployment rate
-1.9% U-6 unemployment rate (fabulous. it includes anyone that looked for work even once in the past year)
-976,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
+72,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2,694,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2.09% INFLATION ADJUSTED Weekly Earnings of Production and Non-Supervisory Workers ( CES0500000031 )
......... the weekly earnings percentage is 11 months thru November because no CPI data for Dec. yet

The reason there's no data for December yet for the weekly earnings is because the CPI inflation adjustment number for December is not yet available. By the way, this and the payroll jobs numbers are the only numbers in the table above that comes from the Establishment Survey rather than the Household Survey.

All the "over the last year" numbers are really good numbers except the 0.1 percentage point drop in the Labor Force Participation Rate. Interesting though that there was a 0.6% percentage point increase in the Employment To Population Ratio. The Population being talked about is the civilian non-institutional population age 16 and over, yes, including all old people, even centenarians.

Seems to me that there is too much discussion in the media of the Labor Force Participation Rate (the employed plus the jobless people who have looked for work in the last 4 weeks, all divided by the population) and not enough attention to what seemingly matters more -- the Employment to Population Ratio. Why aren't we celebrating the increase in the percentage of the population that is employed -- a figure that has been slowly moving up since the job market bottom, despite the growing wave of baby boomer retirements?

Part-Time Workers Who Want Full Time Jobs, as % of All Employed
[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"]Dec'13 Sep'14 Nov'14 Dec'14
[div style="display:inline; font-size:1.37em; font-family:monospace; white-space:pre;"]5.4% 4.8% 4.7% 4.6%

Since the Payroll Job Recovery Began -- Last 58 months thru Dec 31, 2014: 12'14 - 2'10:
(This is the period from when continuous growth of payroll employment began, thru December 31, 2014)
+10,692,000 Payroll Jobs (Establishment Survey, CES0000000001)
+2,409,000 Labor Force
+8,843,000 Employed (yeah!)
-6,433,000 Unemployed (ditto!)
+0.7% Employment-To-Population Ratio aka Employment Rate (woo hoo!)
-2.2% LFPR (Labor Force Participation rate) (ughh)
-4.2% Unemployment rate
-5.8% U-6 unemployment rate
-2,114,000 Part-Time Workers who want Full-Time Jobs (Table A-8's Part-Time For Economic Reasons)
-122,000 Part-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+9,147,000 Full-Time Workers (Table A-9)
+2.26% INFLATION ADJUSTED Weekly Earnings of Production and Non-Supervisory Workers ( CES0500000031 )
......... the weekly earnings percentage is thru November 2014 because no CPI data for December yet

More at my sigline below including where the numbers come from ---vv

[blkmusclmachine]

9. Great for Wall Street, sucks for Main Street.

Obama is a True Believer ... in Trickle Down economics.