Good, but not great:
Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 200,000 in December, and the unemployment rate, at 8.5 percent, continued to trend down, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in transportation and warehousing, retail trade, manufacturing, health care, and mining. — Via Employment Situation Summary
Ed Morrissey Notes:
There are a few interesting points to note. Even though the rate of initial weekly jobless claims has declined over the last few weeks, ther has been an increase of 150,000 people unemployed for five weeks or less. The numbers declined slightly in all other time frames, but that’s something to watch. The civilian population participation rate hasn’t changed at all from the 64.0% of last month, which remains the lowest level since the Reagan years and which keeps the jobless rate artificially low. The civilian labor force — all the employed and all those seeking employment — actually declined by 50,000 people since November. However, the U-6 measure of “real” unemployment dropped from 15.6% in November to 15.2% in December, which is the lowest in three years.
It’s a pretty good but not spectacular result. In order to gain jobs, we have to net more than 125,000 jobs added each month. At this rate, it would take 40 months to add 3 million jobs over and above population growth. I’d rather go in that direction than the opposite, but we need a lot more robust job creation than this to get people back to work.
Before I give my thoughts, you must remember this; I live here in Michigan, just outside of Detroit. The Detroit area, along with the rest of the State has suffered under a one-State recession that started much before the big recession that hit the rest of America. Now having said all of that, I say this. All of these numbers mean nothing. It is nothing more than window dressing; at least to me anyhow. I have not had a job now in six years — other than the meager Ad profit that I managed to squeeze out of my old blog. I hope that I will be able to continue that here with this blog. Yes, I have a “small Business“the emphases on small! 😛 😉 😀 😆
What happened was this; I took $120.00 out of my Christmas money and I bought a nice reseller-hosting package. I hope that I can sell some shared hosting to some people. If I sell a few packages and whip out a couple design jobs for a few guys over on Blogger, who want to get off there; and I happen to make my $120.00 back, I will be happy. The rest is just happy profit. I am not looking to become rich on this little venture. I just would like to make a little money. If it gets insanely busy — I will do my duty and go file the paperwork for a business. (Yes, Liberals, I will pay my taxes, if I make enough warrant paying any!)
It is not that I really do not want to work for someone else — I would love to. However, as any small business owner knows, it is somewhat hard to hire anyone at all. When you have an idiot Government breathing down your shirt collar and keeping you from making any profit.
Another little side note; as the son of a UAW member and GM retiree and a member of a middle class family — it feels so weird to be writing from the standpoint of an actual small business owner. I mean, I am not in an office and wearing a suit. However, I am offering a service to people. I do not know how good I will do in the business. However, that is the beauty of a business; it is a real risk. Sometimes, between you and I — risk can be a bit scary. 