Morning Market Roundup: Unemployment Rate, Shrinking Military, BMW No. 1
- Posted on January 6, 2012 at 10:48am by
Becket Adams
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Here’s what’s important in the financial world this morning:
Unemployment: The Labor Department said Friday that employers added a net 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent. For all of 2011, the economy added 1.6 million jobs, better than the 940,000 added in 2010. The unemployment rate averaged 8.9 percent last year, down from 9.6 percent the previous year.
Economists cautioned that some of the gains reflected temporary hiring for the holiday season. The government adjusts the figures to account for those seasonal factors, but doesn’t always fully account for them.
The gains in transportation and warehousing, for example, reflected a strong increase in hiring for couriers and messengers. That could stem from a big jump in online shopping over the holidays, the department said.
However, there are a few things that should be noted. Ed Morrissey of Hotair explains:
Even though the rate of initial weekly jobless claims has declined over the last few weeks, there 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.
So what’s the bottom line?
“It’s a pretty good but not spectacular result,” Morrissey writes of the newly-released figures. “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.”
We’re #1: Can Audi pass BMW, which passed Mercedes? The ongoing race for the prime position among luxury car companies in the U.S. was won by BMW in 2011. It sold 247,907 cars and light trucks. It is an especially impressive accomplishment because the domestic brands Lincoln and Cadillac were favored by Americans for so many years. And BMWs tend to be priced well above U.S. competitor luxury cars and rival products from Japanese nameplates Lexus, Infiniti and Acura. Audi has made gains in the U.S. with its fleet of all-wheel-drive cars. And it claims it sold more vehicles worldwide than Mercedes and BMW did in 2011. It has not done nearly as well in America, and BMW’s lead is close to insurmountable. But that is what was said of Cadillac and Lincoln a generation ago.
Samsung Sales Surge: Samsung proved that it is the only real challenger to Apple in the smartphone industry — for now. Its estimated earnings were $4.5 billion for the fourth quarter, up nearly 40 percent from the same period a year ago. It now has passed Apple in total global iPhone sales, and it has a legitimate chance to pass Nokia, the top handset maker in the world. Samsung has shown it is the master of the design of Google Android-based phones and tablets, with its Galaxy series capturing much of the top of the market.
Our Shrinking Military: Yesterday was a grim one for U.S. defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing. President Obama announced that military spending would be cut by $487 billion during the next 10 years. The administration’s plan is to shrink the U.S. fighting force to a level at which it can no longer fight two large land wars. The focus of defense activity will move toward Asia and the ongoing threat of terrorism. That means fewer large arms systems will be part of the Pentagon’s future plans.
IMF GDP Forecast: International Monetary Fund chief Lagarde said the agency would cut its forecast for global GDP growth in 2012. She indicated the prime reason for the cut was the sharp slowdown in the economies in Europe. Like most experts, Lagarde believes that a recession on one continent will curtail growth on others. America, Japan and China cannot defy the gravity of low demand. The IMF, she said, will drop its forecast for worldwide expansion to below 4 percent.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Comments (39)
Drakkhanlord
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 2:12pmThe Govt is Lying to You…Wake up Sheeple…
Report Post »lynnissmart
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:46pmThis deliberate phony is so full of hate that his body will begin eating itself away,,,,it couldn’t happen to a nicer person!
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:16pmThe administration’s plan is to shrink the U.S. fighting force to a level at which it can no longer fight two large land wars. The focus of defense activity will move toward Asia and the ongoing threat of terrorism. That means fewer large arms systems will be part of the Pentagon’s future plans.
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:15pmEconomists cautioned that some of the gains reflected temporary hiring for the holiday season
Report Post »vtxphantom
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:05pmMore bogus crap fom government. Don’t believe anything that comes from this government. They lie
Report Post »republic2011
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:23pmYes. Holiday hiring (temporary jobs), and people that decided to take anything they could get to survive. i.e. Daddy is an aerospace engineer but took a job at Walmart as a checker to put food on his family’s table. Numbers are bogus and the interpretation is even more bogus.
Report Post »randy
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:19pmLIAR Obama!
Report Post »JAYBECONSERVATIVE
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:19pmMost people don’t realize the section 179 tax credit expired on 12/31. there was a mad dash by businesses to spend on machinery,equipment, anything else the business needed because of the write offs. this is typical at the end of every year but this one was bigger than usual. Now there will be a reduction in capital expenditures which will result in another fall in the economy. layoffs are coming soon.
Report Post »SimpleTruths
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:18pmSo the worst possible news for the loyal readers here is that things are getting better. And who is it that is rooting for the destruction of America? Hmm.
Report Post »Depressed_American
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:34pmNo things aren’t getting better. These numbers are NOT telling the truth.
For example: an engineer making $150,000.00 a year at his job gets laid off. He finds employment at Walmart for $25,000.00 a year. It the Employment rate being accurate??? That’s the problem with these “numbers”, they aren’t telling the truth!!! People are not being employed back into their old proffessions. Going from the big numbers, to getting paid for flipping burgers, is NOT employment….
Unless you have your head burried in the sand, or you are employed by welfare, People are NOT going back to work…….
Report Post »FREDD The WILSON
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 1:12pmUnemployment figures do not take in consideration people who have just given up looking or are working part time because no permenant jobs are available. There are 6 million less jobs now than there were three years ago, the black unemployment figures are well over 15%. the 8.5% is very skued
Report Post »Drakkhanlord
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 3:35pmgo back to sleep…
Report Post »Depressed_American
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:14pmCooking the books to support the POTUS’ re-election campaign. It’s a scam. When the Holiday TEMPORARY employments ends, are they going to count those numbers back into the Unemployment rate???
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:08pmThe final cost estimate of the $787 billion passed by Congress on Feb. 13 shows that about $145.4 billion will be spent on infrastructure and other job-creating projects in 2009 and 2010, and about $162.5 billion will be spent between 2011 and 2019. Just using those numbers, Will would be correct: most discretionary spending — the Washington term for the portion of the budget that Congress controls — will go out in 2011 or after.
I found the above in an article, I feel the 2009 and 2010 number are wrong and Congress will release more money in 2012 to make the unemployment number drop in order to better their re-election chances.
Report Post »Phoneguy
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:08pmScam!!!!!
Report Post »Censored_by_the_Illuminati
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:00pmSoon everyone will be unemployed and the unemployment rate will be zero. Does Gomer Pyle compile these statistics?
Report Post »heyjim55
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:54amI can not reveal names but I can say that the Governments reporting of the unemployment rate is dead wrong. They are cooking the books, I have a co worker who has a brother that works in DC for the federal Government who has said that he and others in their department must follow directives from their supervisor and produce a favorable unemployment number. This man has said the true unemployment rate is 21.5% not 8.5%. There is another way to tell how bad things really are and that is to call your local area food bank and ask them if they are serving more people , in my area they have grown over 400% which means that there is extraordinary amount people are out of work, most folks do not want to stand in line for sometimes 90 minutes to get a box of food but they have to.If unemployment was that low then the food banks would not be under so much pressure, yes there are people who live off the food bank but a 400% increase in needy families is all together something else almost 50 million people are on food stamps that number is rising not falling so who’s right??
Report Post »absolutely
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:40amI am out here in the real world and I see no change except for more people losing their jobs. All the people in the 62 and over group are giving up and realistically expect they will never find meaingful employment again in their lifetime, so they filed early for SSI, myself included. This will change the whole dynamic immensely when it comes to SSI payouts. When will we start demanding the truth? The same applies to the inflation rate we need the truth. At what point is it too late to recover? After no one has anything left? Is it like a drunk or drug addict, we have to totally collapse before we can recover? Starting to think this is Absolutely true. Everyone needs to read Atlas Shrugged it’s unbelievable how closely we resemble the book right down to individual characters. Our industries are fleeing and the people who create are refusing to create because the looters are leaving them with nothing for their efforts. I just read it for the first time at 66 and should have read it long ago. Either Ayn Rand was one brilliant woman who could see the future or someone read her book and said this is how it can be done and is following it to the letter. Either way read it if you haven’t yet done so, then you will see what’s coming if we fail to correct things in 2012. If you aren’t already having them, prepare for night sweats. Absolutely
Report Post »RodT82721
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:37amIt’s unemployment numbers day again! We get the latest ‘estimate’ of how great the President’s jobs programs have lowered that precious number.
Of course if you look close, you will note it’s not really a hard number, just another estimate from those ‘experts’ that have been wrong with every estimate they have posted since WWII!
But the reports were leaked a little early to get the news out last night that everything is turning rosy!
Barry’s a shoo in, the economy is booming, people were hiring all across the nation last month, and really, Christmas had NOTHING to do with it! It was Barry’s jobs programs.
It’s easy to lower the unemployment numbers when they don’t count most of the unemployed. All they have to do is declare the total job market got a little smaller!
Report Post »It’s just like making those recess appointments, the Senate is not in session as long as Barry, our dear leader declares it so!
quiltgal
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:31amIf no Americans had jobs, and none were counted in the unemployment numbers because they’d all been out of work too long, exhausted their unemployment benefits, and given up looking, would the Labor Dept. say we have full employment? The way they spin the numbers is deceptive, and this administration is full of liars. I don’t trust them or their calculations.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:25amobama has broken America, he has deliberately attacked and broken Boeing, as the Wichita KS plant has over 2100 AMERICANS being unemployed next. not to mention the hundreds of thousands of troops obama is letting go. ==without organized ground troops, we are unprotected as an organized unit on our own soil. with our aircraft plants ruined, bankrupted, and are closed down, there will be no more air power to protect America, not even making replacement parts for the aging aircraft we have now. it‘s all obamacommunist designed to disable America so completely we will be as unprepared for actual dictatorship HERE and invasion by the rabid animal obama’s buddies, s we were on Dec 7th 1941. obama has stacked the administration with his mentor communists who have publicly planned America’s destruction for 5 decades.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:27amif obama says our unemployment is down to 8.5%, you know he’s lying and laughing and it is over actually 18.5%. he’s the most vile liar on the face of the earth. even Bill Ayers and Iran comes out and says they plan to destroy America.
Report Post »HKS
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:12amI guess that is quite evident if you live in California, BMW dealers on every corner, but you’ll need a lunch to find a Ford dealership.
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:22amThis STATISTIC is FALSE !!!!!!!
This Percentage is the Number of people that have APPLIED for the Socialist Handout !!!!!!!
A lot more people are turning to other endeavors to supplement their income, Like the old American way. Barter, Trade, use Gold and Silver.
I provide a service, and I will accept Gold as Payment. That is 100% proof I don’t have to USE a PRIVATE BANKS FIAT NOTE !!!!!!!!!
Report Post »END the FEDERAL RESERVE PRIVATE BANK !!!!!!!!!!
JLGunner
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:15pmIn a Ron Paul world we’ll be buying bread and milk with beaver pelts and beads.
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 12:31pmJLGUNNER.
You are just merely uneducated. A currency based on no standard is what causes inflation.
INFLATION = SLAVERY to the Global Banks.
Given this simple fact, I will opt to “buy bread and milk with beaver pelts and beads”
That or Slavery, your choice.
Actually, their is a third choice. that is to reinstitutute JFKs executive order #11110.
That grants Authority BACK to the U.S. Treasury (Now under the control of the PRIVATE BANK: The federal Reserve) to Print REAL AMERICAN MONEY based on SILVER.
This would DESTROY the Federal Reserve NOTE. the NOTE that is destroying US !!!!!!
This would free America from the grips of the World Banksters !!!!
Get a Freakin’ Education !!!!!
Report Post »Drakkhanlord
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 2:20pmIgnorant , Indoctrinated , or just dam stupid …?
Report Post »which is it Gunner?
Seneca264
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:10amThis is all fraudulent information coming from the Obama spin zone. Hiring is up in 2011 due to temporary hiring during the holidays. The unemployment figure does not account for the millions that have dropped off the unemployment roles due to not looking for work anymore. Everything is still the same and the unemployment figures have not changed. Actually the original figure of 9.6% was not correct. The real figure was somewhere around 12-14%. Again, more spin from the Marxists. Americans are moronic is they believe this tripe.
Report Post »sWampy
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:07amSo the few Christmas hires lowered the unemployment rate for the year, something just doesn’t smell right here.
Report Post »JLGunner
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:54amIt‘s barack’s recess appointees that lowered the unemplyment rate. Watch it soar when he kills military jobs.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:06amConsidering that the Dems now tout the unemployment norm at 9%, this will be considered a success for Obama.
Report Post »NOBAMA201258
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:05amObama seems determined to destroy our military,with the rise of china and growing threats from iran and others, shrinking our military now is assinine !
Report Post »Regdunlop
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:11amBut we have to shrink non important stuff like national defense. I mean, we have to have lots of money for welfare and govt healthcare right?
Report Post »Wolfpack Conservative
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 10:58am“The ongoing race for the prime position among luxury car companies in the U.S. was won by BMW in 2011. It sold 247,907 cars and light trucks.”
When did BMW start making trucks? I hate it when people refer to SUVs as “trucks”
Report Post »Regdunlop
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:09amThey lump SUV’s and trucks in the same category.
Report Post »poverty.sucks
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 10:52amIf the Blaze is to hold to their principle of reporting the Truth, how long will it take to state the true unemployment rate has been well above 9% all of 2011
Report Post »quicker
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:02amMore like 22% if you count the ones that have stop looking for work.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 6, 2012 at 11:10amFrom the AP today .. so even under the NEW math .. it is much more than it was before Obama and what is being reported .. because they are shrinking the unemployment number because there are less jobs counted. And REAL number is much higher!
“The work force has declined by about 160,000 over the past two months, one reason the unemployment rate has fallen.
“You have to take that unemployment rate decline with a grain of salt when you look at the declines in the labor force,” said Marisa DiNatale, an economist at Moody’s Analytics.
The government only counts people as unemployed if they are actively searching for jobs. Discouraged workers who have given up on looking are not included in the rate.
And some of those who are counted as employed are working part time, but want full-time work.
When including those groups, the broader “underemployment” rate was 15.2 percent. That’s down from 15.6 percent the previous month, but still high. The figure has dropped for three straight months.
And the job market has a long way to go to recover from the Great Recession. The nation has 6 million fewer jobs that it did in December 2007, when the recession began.”
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