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How much will the economy matter to voters in November?

Break into journalism’s top tier with the Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowship, which provides nine months’ experience with the Wall Street Journal’s opinion section in New York, beginning this fall. Fellows receive pay of $5,000 per month through our good friends at the Fund for American Studies. To…

Glenn Sherrill’s company buys steel. Tons and tons of steel. So much steel that his grandfather put the word in the company’s name when he started it. In the last 60 years, family-owned SteelFab has grown from a small maker of ornamental handrails in Charlotte, N.C., to a large metal fabricator. It…

Is the Labor Department scheming to take away restaurant servers' tips? That's the message some labor advocates are sending in response to a proposed rule-making by the Trump administration that would permit kitchen staff in certain states to receive a portion of servers' tips.

The Tax Foundation on Monday said the final GOP tax bill would increase the national debt by $448 billion over the next decade, far less than the estimated $1.5 trillion in lost tax revenues under the bill.

Every Sunday evening, the press office at the Environmental Protection Agency receives emails from the New York Times and Politico asking for EPA administrator Scott Pruitt’s public schedule for the coming week. The press office ignores the emails.

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

As presidential candidate, Donald Trump promised he would make really great deals that would bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work—rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor,” President Trump said in his…

Who says that President Trump refuses to accept responsibility for anything? Just last week he bravely accepted responsibility for the soaring stock market and the good news emerging about the American economy, which grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent, more than double the first-quarter anemic…

In his first six months on the job, President Trump has presided over an economy that is creating jobs at a pace that is 50 percent faster than under President Obama.

The Weekly Standard has two full-time positions available: online editor and social media director. The online editor will be a senior position for a talented individual with proven experience, reporting to the editor in chief. The duties of the social media director will include maximizing the…

The stock market is through the roof. Consumer confidence is at a 15-year high. And this morning, in the first full monthly jobs report from the Labor Department, comes news that the country added 235,000 jobs in February. That pace is about the same as it was the month before and about double the…

Three days hence those Americans not too lazy, or not seriously unhappy with the choice before them, will join the 37 million who have already voted. Hillary Clinton is hoping they will have taken on board Friday's jobs report. The economy added 161,000 jobs in October, and the reports for the past…

The American economy continues to grow, albeit slowly, and the jobs markets has been generating enough jobs to keep us at or close to full employment without triggering inflation. The economy added 156,000 jobs last month, not seriously out of line with the 75,000-125,000 jobs that observers such…

The Weekly Standard has a full-time senior position available for a talented individual with digital media, social media, and editorial expertise. This individual will be a key contributor to all of The Weekly Standard’s online efforts. Duties will include maximizing the reach and influence of…

The economy added only 38,000 jobs in May and the workforce shed almost half a million people.

Most conservatives believe Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have wrong solutions to the stagnation in wages and job creation that has marked the American economy since 2000. But Trump and Sanders have proven better vote-getters than conservative candidates because, politically speaking, having wrong…

Writing at the Washington Free Beacon, contributing editor Matthew Continetti squares recent columns by Charles Krauthammer and David Brooks.

Under three different CEOs, Walmart has done all kinds of somersaults to appease left-wing critics. In 2005, Lee Scott set goals of “zero waste” and “100 percent” conversion to renewable energy. In 2009, Mike Duke, the next CEO, took on Obamacare—as an outspoken supporter of the unpopular health…

Democrats have won votes by alleging that Republican positions amount to a "war on women." Yet politicians and pundits are now saying that a constellation of liberal policies favored by Democrats, on issues ranging from entitlements and healthcare to education and the economy, constitutes a war on…

As gaffes go, it was an especially amusing one for a woman who has thus far been caught with 671 instances of classified information appearing in her personal email. “Earlier today I announced that as president I will take steps to ‘ban the box,’ so former presidents won’t have to declare their…

Lift-off. That’s the conclusion to which observers jumped when the government announced on Friday that the economy added 271,000 jobs in October. And that the August and September figures have been revised upward by 12,000. And that the unemployment rate fell to 5 percent. And that discouraged…

Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard, has posed an interesting question on his blog.

REO Speedwagon’s legendary guitarist Gary Richrath, a native of my hometown of Peoria, passed away on September 13 at age 65, which is a ripe old age for a rock star. His death marks an end to a musical era​—​I encourage you to skip the schlocky ballads of the band’s latter years and listen to the…

Strange as it may seem, Barack Obama has much in common with the storied matchmaker of Jewish legend. This Polish entrepreneur announced to the poverty-stricken rabbi of a poverty-stricken Polish town that she had found a match for his even more poverty stricken, unattractive son – no less than the…

Well, so bad that even the stock market didn’t like it and it usually welcomes news that restrains the Fed from raising interest rates. But this morning, the NYSE opened over 200 points in the red.

The jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics: 

Two weekends ago, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City held its annual monetary conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. The left flew in hundreds of protesters donning green T-shirts that demanded “Higher Wages for America” and chanting, “We’re Fed Up.” The crowd was an assortment of college kids…

Twenty-one years ago, Fortune boldly declared “The End of the JOB.” Thanks to rapid advances in technology, people had been freed from the tyranny of the nine-to-five workplace. Now they could set their own hours and schedules, do without constant oversight and supervision, and concentrate on a…

The eagerly anticipated jobs report for August has come in and it is a disappointment … sort of. Expectations were for an increase of 217,000 jobs. The number was … 173,000. But

On Friday, the government reported that the economy added 215,000 jobs last month, and that the  unemployment rate remained a low 5 percent. That could support a decision by the Federal Reserve Board to raise its key interest rate in September. But the absence of inflation and of a significant…

The Weekly Standard is hiring an assistant to the literary editor. This is an entry-level clerical/administrative post with editorial duties and the opportunity to assist in the composition of the Books & Arts section. The ideal applicant will be interested in promotion and social media. Knowledge…

Hillary Clinton outlined her economic agenda today at the New School in Manhattan, and attacked Uber. The ridesharing service did not reply to Clinton directly, but the company did post a story on its blog about how the service helps “senior mobility.” Clinton, a grandmother, is 67 years old.

First time claims for unemployment spiked last week.  As Bloomberg reports:

Rebecca Shabad of The Hill reports:

Parades, fireworks, patriotic songs, 150 million hot dogs consumed, 41 million car trips of more than 50 miles -- and heightened security in reaction to Islamist terrorist threats to disrupt our celebration with murder and mayhem as part of their celebration of their holy month of Ramadan. That’s…

Bloomberg reports that:

Fresh off its widely-mocked exclusive on the traffic citations given Marco and Jeannette Rubio – fewer than one per year, combined – the New York Times has an in-depth look at Scott Walker and the wealthy conservatives who backed him throughout his rise to national prominence. It’s a classic of the…

On Friday we learned that the U.S. economy surprised on the upside by adding 280,000 new jobs in May, and that 32,000 more jobs had been created in March and April than originally reported. The fact that economic growth is still sluggish, while more and more workers are finding jobs, suggests that…

The White House is celebrating the most recent jobs numbers. 

The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the unemployment rate ticking up to 5.5 percent and that the economy added 280,000 jobs:

Bloomberg reports that:

That negative 1st quarter GDP has been widely passed off as the effect of a particularly severe winter.  Things, we were assured, were not that bad and would be getting better as the weather warmed.  Well, not so fast.  The Commerce Department came out this morning with a report on factory orders…

Let’s say that next Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics comes out with a really handsome non-farm-payrolls report. Something close to 300,000 new jobs and a decline in the unemployment rate by a couple of tenths of a point. How do you suppose the president and his staff would deal with the news? 

Michelle Jamrisko at Bloomberg writes:

The Weekly Standard has a full-time position available for a web producer with editorial skills and -social media expertise. Duties will include assisting the online staff with editorial and production tasks across a variety of digital and social media platforms.

After yesterday’s disappointing GDP number (it grew by a meager .2% in the last quarter) we got this from Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors:

The economy might, but only might, be slowing. In March we added only 126,000 jobs, the lowest increase since December 2013, barely enough to absorb new entrants into the workforce. Almost all measures of the health of the labor market -- the unemployment rate, the number of workers jobless for…

Expectations were for more than 200,000 new jobs.  The report, this morning, crushed those expectations. In the old fashioned sense of “crushed.” As Joseph Lawler of the Washington Examiner writes:

From CNBC, discouraging news that:

Bloomberg reports that:

Bloomberg reports that:

Seems the answer, according to Gallup, is Not so much.

Water, Water Everywhere

Bloomberg reports that:

First time claims fell, as Reuters reports, by:

Sometimes, anecdote is more revealing than data. A few days’ gleanings:

Kate Davidson of the Wall Street Journal reports that:

The recovery may be slowing and the end of the Fed’s QE efforts receding further into the future.

The Obama administration’s line on the economy appears to be that it has finally turned the corner and things are truly humming.  And maybe so.  But there are signs of trouble amid all the good cheer.

The first number in a week that will produce many of them, culminating with monthly non-farm payrolls, is not promising for the recovery.  As Bloomberg reports:

Listen to the president, his staff, and his supporters and you might be ready to believe that the economy is on a rocket ride to prosperity.  More jobs, lower gas prices, increased consumer spending.  So now, at last, we can afford to do away with sequestration and other implements of austerity.…

Predictions of a robustly growing economy may prove as evanescent as yesterday’s winter storm warnings.  As Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports:

The White House launched a new campaign this week to build support for President Obama's executive action on immigration. Although the campaign is to feature state-by-state advantages weekly over the new few months, one of the purported nationwide benefits of the president's actions is what amounts…

What should be a recovery on steroids – after all, it has had six years to get in shape – is still not up to speed.  If there were as many people in the labor force now, as there were when President Obama came into office, the unemployment rate would be close to 10%.  And the spirit of…

Barack Obama and his disciples began worrying about his legacy even before he took office.  He would not be satisfied to be judged competent or good.  He was going to be a transformative president. He has been widely mocked for claiming that his election would mark the moment when the seas began to…

The president is proposing more higher education (at the community college level) as a cure for our economic woes.  Along with some substantial tax increases, of course.  But is more college the answer?  Or should we, perhaps, be concerned about the quality of the college we already have when, as…

Bloomberg is reporting that:

 Lucia Mutikani of Reuters writes:

President Obama is in a good mood. He believes the country, under his leadership, is heading in the right direction.

It was a good year for jobs. As Bloomberg notes:

Had enough good economic news to see you through the holidays? Good. But if you plan to ask, “Please, sir, I want some more” you might be in store for your own Oliver Twist moment. Here’s why:

The Wall Street Journal reports that first time unemployment claims:

The economic news has been getting better, especially regarding the price of oil. Which the consumer sees as what he forks over at the pump. And that, as we all know, is one price the trend of which we follow every day.  

An estimated 90 million of us will drive 50 miles or more during this holiday season, and recent years’ gnashings of teeth at the pump are being replaced with smiles. The price of gasoline is down 36 percent since April, to a national average of around $2.40 per gallon, with some cities reporting…

The new dawn didn’t. There was to be no more sturm und drang, no more brinkmanship, no more government shutdowns, no more threats of default on America’s debt. Just routine passage of a $1,100,000,000,000 spending bill to keep the government running until next September when the current fiscal year…

The economy added more than 320,000 jobs last month. Against a forecast of 230,000. The unemployment rate holds at 5.8 percent, indicating that many who had previously given up are again seeking employment.

“Give me your tired, your poor … your huddled masses … wretched refuse … the homeless,” implores the Lady in New York harbor. Little can she know that 11.4 million of these “tempest-tost” souls are already here, having arrived illegally, most from Mexico and points south. Some 4-5 million of those…

The Weekly Standard has a full-time position available for an editorial assistant. Duties will include fact-checking, research, and proofreading.

The Weekly Standard has a full-time position available for an editorial assistant. Duties will include fact-checking, research, and proofreading.

Some 140 million bargain-hunting customers will descend on retailers on Thanksgiving Day, so-called Black Friday, and throughout next weekend -- or at least those who haven’t shopped already or by early next week will head for the shops. Not so long ago most stores remained closed  on Thanksgiving…

The headline over this Government Executive article reads:

Recent news on the economy has been generally encouraging so it is possible that this week’s first time claims number could be a one-off.  As Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports,

The monthly BLS report on unemployment comes in under expectations which were for some 235,000 news jobs.  So the 214,000 is a downside miss.  However, the new benchmark for “good, not great” seems to be a monthly increase in of 200,000.  And the economy has hit that number for nine consecutive…

Lorraine Woellert of Bloomberg reports:

On Tuesday those of us who have not already availed ourselves of postal ballots or early voting will troop to the polls to elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives, 36 of the 100 senators, 36 governors, and a host of politicians vying for local office. These old-fashioned voters will…

News on the economy had been promising these last few days, especially the GDP increase in the last quarter.  Today comes a not-so-good report on consumer spending.  As Victoria Stilwell reports at Bloomberg:

The indicators for the economy are looking good.  For those who view the world through a political prism, this news may be coming too late to help the president and his party in the mid-terms.  And for those whose view is long and wide, the skies are not entirely blue.  There is the matter of labor…

The number for September orders of durable goods is one of three that were anticipated as indicators of where the economy is headed … or if it is merely treading water. (Housing prices and consumer confidence are the others.) Expectations were for a modest increase in durables after a bad number…

The Peter Drucker sallies about how government “can only do two things well: wage war and inflate the currency” is being severely tested.  Today, we see this headline, over a piece by Jonathan Spicer of Reuters 

The president insists that his programs have done great things for the economy and that, while he is not on the ballot in next week’s elections, his policies are. Well, as Mike Dorning of Bloomberg reports:

Hillary Clinton, doing her no-bull, forceful leader number, tells an audience:

Amidst the cliched rhetoric decrying “unpatriotic” companies that accompanied the Obama administration’s recent move to address corporate inversions, it was easy to miss the fact that there is relatively little of substance that can be remedied via regulation alone, even with Treasury Secretary…

Vice President Joe Biden talked about the trouble the middle class is having during the Barack Obama presidency at an event earlier today in Philadelphia:

First time claims came in on the low side. Unexpectedly so.  Which seems, paradoxically, predictable. 

President Obama's former defense secretary, Leon Panetta, called for a White House shake-up this morning on CBS:

At a Hollywood fundraiser last night in Gwyneth Paltrow's backyard, President Obama explained that the rich are getting richer. "Most of the gains in our economy go to the folks who are in this lovely yard," Obama said.

The State Department this week posted a notice that applications are being accepted for Foreign Service Security Protective Specialist positions in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to provide a "variety of personal protective services to Department officials and employees at…

If James Carville is still remotely right that “It’s the economy, stupid,” then it’s no wonder that it has been tough sledding for Senate incumbents this fall.  Members of the Senate class that’s up for reelection this year were, of course, elected (or reelected) in November 2008 and began their…

Coming in ahead of the unemployment figure for September, which will be released on Friday, and tomorrow’s weekly first-time-claims number, the ADP jobs report might be some sort of harbinger. In the case of today’s number, a happy one, as Paul Davidson of USA Today reports:

This is the conclusion, as Pedro Nicolaci Da Costa of the Wall Street Journal  reports, reached by:

A new chart from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee shows a startling fact: Almost 1 in 4 Americans between the ages of 25-54 (or prime working years) are not working. 

First time claims are looking good.  As Jeffry Bartash at Maket Watch reports:

If you know how many months there are in a “considerable time,” you will know exactly when Janet Yellen and her colleagues on the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy committee plan to begin raising interest rates. If not, you can add your guess to those of professional Fed watchers who are…

Ben Casselman and Reuben Fischer-Baum of 538 have gone inside the numbers (as they say) of the economic recovery and their findings are not comforting.

A new study from the American Action Forum finds that "1.9 Million Americans [Are] Falling into the ACA Created 'Family Glitch.'"

First, the good news. Initial unemployment claims, which were expected to come in at 305,000, came in at 280,000 good deal less than that. More people working might mean that, in time, wages will rise and families that have never seen their financial situations improve since the Great Recession,…

Regarding the economy, we have come to expect the unexpected which is, it sometimes seems, the only thing one can count on.  For instance, Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg is reporting today that:

The administration continues to advance its arguments about the economy, with the president even tacking on to the end of his somber speech about new military action in the Middle East, a digression about how well things are going with jobs, manufacturing, and etc.

Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg reports that:

Analysts hoping to rebut the purveyors of gloom who are arguing that America is in long-term decline were looking to Friday’s job report for comfort. They got none. Instead of continuing to create about 200,000 each month, the economy produced a mere 142,000 new payroll jobs, and only 134,000 in…

The mood before this morning’s jobs report landed with a thud was one of high, almost touching optimism.  For example, there was this from Matt Phillips at Quartz:

The eagerly anticipated jobs report comes in at less than 3/4s of the anticipated 200,000-plus.  As Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg reports:

Recent talk about the economy (especially from within the administration) has been upbeat. So the employment (jobs) number for August, which will be released tomorrow, will be looked at closely since that is the measure of economic health and progress that most people – and, hence, all politicians…

Even after yesterday’s promising first time claims and GDP numbers, the state of the economy – especially on the jobs, employment, wages side – remains uncertain and troubling as we enter the Labor Day weekend.  As Mark Gimein of Bloomberg reports:

Jeanna Smialek and Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports that:

First time claims were expected to be come in at 303,000.  The actual number was 298,000.  As Shobhana Chandra of Bloomberg reports:

If the economic recovery is dismissed as a chimera by half the population, there is a reason. As Aki Ito, Ian Katz, and Ilan Kolet of Bloomberg report:

At long last we are emerging from the blind alleys down which the debate about income inequality seems to have wandered. The first such dead end was marked “fairness.” The top tenth of one percent of earners feel the tax system unfairly expropriates too large a portion of their incomes, bloated…

At long last we are emerging from the blind alleys down which the debate about income inequality seems to have wandered. The first such dead end was marked “fairness.” The top tenth of one percent of earners feel the tax system unfairly expropriates too large a portion of their incomes, bloated…

Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports that:

Optimists have been hoping for robust GDP growth in the 3rd quarter and had pegged their hopes on improved consumer performance.  As is often cited, consumer spending accounts for some 70 percent of GDP.  It now seems that last month it did not match expectations.  As Lorraine Woellert…

Bank of America likes to top rival J.P. Morgan Chase in as many ways as possible. Except one. The $16-to-$17 billion check it is about to write to cover the fine for sins committed before the financial crisis tops the previous record of $13 billion paid by J.P. Morgan Chase just nine months ago.…

Victoria Stilwell of Bloomberg reports that:

At last, some good news about the U.S. economy. Sort of. The government’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reckons the economy grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in the second quarter of the year (data subject to revision). If that rate continues, five years of a lackadaisical recovery would be…

The 302,000 is a so, so number.  But close to what was expected – 300,000.  And not as good as last week’s 284,000.  But as Bloomberg reports, the monthly average is encouraging.

After contracting in the 1st quarter, 2nd quarter GDP grew by an unexpectedly robust 4.0 percent.  As CNBC reports: Gross domestic product expanded at a 4.0 percent annual rate as activity picked up broadly after shrinking at a revised 2.1 percent pace in the first quarter, the Commerce Department…

Celebrating a fourth birthday and growing nicely. That’s the story of the Dodd-Frank law, designed to end a “too big to fail” banking system that forced taxpayers to bail out bankers who took not only their own banks but the entire financial system to the verge of collapse, and brought on a record…

Some jobs depend on there being lots of jobs and people having a little disposable income to blow on things like … well, the slots. Which is why, in Atlantic City, as Terrence Dopp of Bloomberg reports:

The discussion over economic inequality in the United States seems to have captured the public imagination, at least on the political left.  President Obama has called it “the defining challenge of our time,” and Secretary Clinton has deemed it “a cancer.” Given the shorthand manner in which…

From Gallup, we learn that:

All good things must come to an end. And bad things, too, if you believe that the Federal Reserve Board’s bond buying program was a mistake. The minutes of its June 17-18 monetary policy committee meeting, published a few days ago, reveal that these purchases, largely credited with keeping…

Initial claims came in at 304,000, slightly less than expected (315,000) and low enough to keep the low flame of optimism burning after last weeks good jobs number.

After celebrating our Declaration of Independence from the British oppressor, we will return to work Monday having consumed 155 million hot dogs and, for some 41 million of us, bucked traffic jams, long security lines at airports, or storm-induced flight delays in order to visit family or whatever…

In the first quarter of 2014, GDP in the U.S. plunged at a 2.9% annual rate, and productivity—the inflation-adjusted business output per hour worked—declined at a 3.5% annual rate. This is the worst productivity statistic since 1990. And productivity since 2005 has declined by more than 8% relative…

Weekly first time unemployment claims came in almost exactly as expected (which, in itself, is sort of unexpected) at 312,000.  One thousand less than economists were predicting and 6,000 less than last week.  Which amounts to something like treading water.  We aren’t drowning, but we aren’t…

The economy isn’t going anywhere.  Not anytime soon, according to the IMF.  As Anna Yukhananov of Reuters reports:

Until Eve’s encounter with the serpent, Adam did not spend a lot of time looking for work. Didn’t have to. Expelled from Eden and cursed with the necessity of earning his bread “in the sweat of his face,” he found work. Had to. Therein lies a partial, but only partial, explanation for one of the…

It is mandatory for economists to point out that one data point does not make a trend. We then all-too-often fill space with, er, a discussion of one data point, most usually the monthly report on job creation. Not being one to defy convention, I will report that Friday’s jobs report was a yawner.…

Senator Jeff Sessions has released a statement that says, "7 Million People Have Left The Workforce Since The President Took Office." The statement is in response to today's jobs numbers.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 217,000 in May, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Which means that there are now more people working than there were before the recession and, for that matter, than ever before in…

According to the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

More people filed for unemployment last week than had the week before … But the average for the month of May was lower than it has been since 2007.  And, for lagniappe, there is the fact that the number that came in almost hit “expectations” dead center.

Another discouraging report on the economy and it will be hard to write this one off to the weather. As Kathleen Madigan of the Wall Street Journal reports:

Little ado about not very much. Markets yawned when the government revised its initial estimate of economic growth in the first quarter from a slight positive, +0.1 percent, to a non-trivial negative of -1.0 percent. There are several reasons that the first shrinkage of the economy in three years…

The Commerce Department released revise first-quarter GDP numbers this morning. They were expected to show that the economy had actually shrunk a bit,  instead of expanding by 0.1 percent as the initial report showed.  The contraction was predicted to be somewhere around .5 percent.  And while this…

The fracking euphoria had to end. For three reasons. First, the claims for its benefits were wildly exaggerated, ensuring eventual disappointment as even a cheerful reality could not meet the imaginings of the pro-fossil-fuel gang. Second, environmental groups were not going to sit idly by, their…

More evidence that the legs of the long economic recovery may be getting less wobbly.  First-time jobless claims fell, last week, to a seven-year low and beat, on the downside, economists’ predictions by a large margin.  (One sometimes thinks that the economists ought to pick a figure and stick…

But just how bad was the first quarter for the American economy?  Commerce Department GDP came in at .1 percent growth, which is treading water, but barely.  Speculation had the revised figures showing that the economy actually contracted and now, as Ben Leubsdorf of the Wall Street…

Hedge fund manager Barry Rosenstein is not a man to be fazed by the recent rise in mortgage interest rates. Nor is he one to worry that the housing market might be softening, loping the odd million off the $147 million he shelled out for an 18-acre beachfront home in the Hamptons, on New York’s…

President Romney, as Marina Koren of the National Journal reports, appeared today on the television show Morning Joe and said:

A new Brookings Institution report indicates that businesses are shuttering their doors more quickly than new ones are popping up.

The economy grew in the first quarter at “point one percent,” announced Mitch McConnell, and then repeated it by way of introduction to an attack on President Obama’s economic policies. Whether seeming to revel in the misery of a slow recovery that has kept unemployment high and wages low simply…

Non-farm payrolls beat expectations. Quite handsomely. As Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg reports:

The latest jobs numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

First time claims rose to 344,000 last week, highest in nine weeks. Economists were expecting 320,000. Yesterday, stalled GDP growth in the 1st quarter was widely blamed on the weather. This big, disappointing miss is being explained, according to Michelle Jamrisko of Bloomberg, as having something…

The numbers on 1st quarter GDP are, in a word, dismal.  An economy that had been limping along came nearly to a standstill. As Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg reports:

The weekly and closely-watched number of first time jobless claims rose last week by 24,000 to 329,000. Economists had expected the number to come in at 315,000.

A few weeks ago I suggested that we now know when Federal Reserve Board chair Janet Yellen will raise interest rates: never. Her first formal monetary policy speech can be read to support that view, or at least that “normal” interest rates are what the Economist describes as “a distant prospect.”…

First time jobelss claims held steady, this week, at 304,000. That would be less than than the “expected” 315,000 but more than last week’s 302,000.

Is it finally spring in the world of employment?  If one is looking for encouraging signs, this week’s first-time claims number is very encouraging.  Down from slightly over 330,000 last week to 300,000.  Lowest number since May 2007 and the greatest weekly drop since January 2006.

“In the end, history is not kind to those who would deny Americans their basic economic security.  Nobody remembers well those who stand in the way of America’s progress or our people. And that’s what the Affordable Care Act represents.” President Obama, who made that statement last week, has never…

We now know the approximate date when Federal Reserve Board chair Janet Yellen will feel comfortable ending the Fed’s near-zero interest rate policy: never. Those who were led to believe by her first press conference that she has shed her dove’s feathers for those of an inflation hawk, circling…

The monthly jobs report is in and the sound one hears all around Washington is that of spin machines running through the gears.

 In the midst of the Obama administration's latest push to increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has released an analysis showing the the percentage of hourly workers earning at or below the minimum wage is down to 4.3 percent, or 3.3…

The monthly jobs numbers will be released tomorrow and they are even more eagerly anticipated than usual now that the Obamacare deadline (using the term loosely) has passed and attention is being increasingly paid to the next elections in which jobs will likely be the prime issue.

A new study by American Health Policy Institute finds that the president's signature legislation, Obamacare, will cost large employers "$4,800 to $5,900 per employee." The study, called “The Cost of the Affordable Care Act to Large Employers,” is available here. 

Ben Casselman at 538, on unemployment and underemployment, starting from this point.

A new report from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds that "Economic Growth In 2013 Just Half Of What The President Said His Policies Would Deliver." Here's a chart, showing the committee's findings:

As Bloomberg is reporting:

We now know a lot more about the probable course of the economy than we did a few months ago, and are likely to learn even more in the next few weeks when the jobs report is released on April 4.

Long-term unemployment, in some cases, does not even show up in the jobless figures released monthly by the Labor Department and eagerly anticipated by the political spinners standing by to mold them into partisan shape. Many of those whose unemployment has been prolonged simply give up; something…

Feelings about the economy are not especially buoyant on this first day of spring.  First time claims held their own but, as Katherine Peralta of Bloomberg reports:

President Obama might have been economical with the truth when he promised Americans they could keep their doctors when Obamacare takes effect, but he is proving a man of his word when it comes to the exercise of presidential power as he defines it. “I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” he told…

Expectations unexpectedly fell with is something many have come to expect … if you know what we mean.

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry made the point that his department is not just concerned with foreign affairs.  The State Department tweeted the following comments of the secretary at the hearing:

Five years ago this Sunday share prices hit a 13-year low: the S&P index of 500 shares fell to 676.53. Today it stands at 1,878.04, an increase of about 170 percent. Five years ago Sunday the unemployment rate stood at 8.7 percent, and was to reach 10 percent in a few months. Today, the…

Non-farm payrolls surprised to the upside in February with 175,000 jobs added.  The number was “unexpectedly” high with forecasts running in the 150,000 range and some going much lower.  

The Labor Department report on first time unemployment claims came in slightly below expectations:  323,000 against an expected 336,000 and the best figure in three months.

Private sector employment Increased by 139,000 jobs in February as reported by ADP (Automatic Data Processing, Inc.). This early, closely watched number comes in below:

The administration has produced a budget that includes various predictions not least of which concerns GDP growth. The White House, as Jeffry Bartash of Marketwatch reports, is looking for sunny days ahead and:

Here's a rather harsh assessment of the last four years under the Obama administration's economic policies:

Rodrigo Campos at Reuters reports that:

The boss made the argument this morning on ABC's This Week that conservatives have to be serious about making work pay:

A recently released Department of Agriculture (USDA) report on the "Food Assistance Landscape" for the fiscal year 2013 shows that for the second year in a row, participation in the federal government's SNAP (food stamps) program has increased despite a corresponding drop in the unemployment rate,…

What we have been told is a “recovery” has a way of throwing off false trails.  We were told to expect a robust performance, this year, from the housing sector yet, yesterday, for example, we learn that home-builder confidence has not merely fallen, but cratered.   As Reuters reports:

If you were concerned that the Affordable Care Act might add the the nation’s unemployment woes, as predicted by the Congressional Budget Office, then you might take heart from what a senior administration official is saying:

And it is playing hob with the expectations of economists, as Jeanna Smialek at Bloomberg reports:

Braving the weather, the BLS has released the weekly first-time claims numbers. They were off, a bit, on the high side. The “expected” figure: 330,000.

When economic forecasts prove wrong, it is customary to blame the weather. So cold that consumers stayed home, or so hot that consumers, well, stayed home. So cold that outdoor construction was unexpectedly low, unless of course unusually high temperatures made such work impossible lest heat stroke…

The monthly employment numbers are out and even the New York Times is dismayed.  The economy added 113,000 jobs in January, which was (all together now) unexpectedly short of the 180,000 economists were predicting.  This news:

Curtis Williams, of Oil & Gas Journal, reports that former Energy Secretary Steven Chu had this to say about the Keystone pipeline project:

President Obama surely deserves to relax this weekend and enjoy the Super Bowl after an arduous week in which he prepared and delivered his fifth State of the Union message, one the White House admits set forth a rather limited agenda, and then took to the hustings for stops in four states on the…

As expected, first time claims rose “unexpectedly," last week.  As Jeanna Smialek of Bloomberg reports:

This week’s first time claims number is yet another mushy indicator which will be spun according to the preconceptions of the spinner.  As Jeffrey Sparshott & Sarah Portlock report at the Wall Street Journal:

In a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Canada's foreign minister, John Baird put things plainly:

Jason Furman works at the White House as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. Today he is painting lipstick, blush, eye shadow, and anything else that is lying around handy to the December jobs report which, he spins this way: