U.S. economy added 126,000 jobs in March: Unemployment rate steady at 5.5%

On Friday, the Labor Department reported the U.S. economy added 126,000 jobs in March 2015. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.5%.

January's job gains were revised lower from 239,000 to 201,000. February was also revised lower, meaning the economy added 69,000 fewer jobs in the first two months of 2015.

The labor-force participation rate fell to 62.7% from February’s 62.8%. The labor force lost 96,000 workers last month, putting the participation rate near its lowest level since the late 1970s..

The mining and logging industry lost 11,000 jobs in March. For the year, mining and logging have lost a total of 30,000 jobs.

So, which job sectors did hire in March?

1. Professional and business services, a broad category that includes everything from architects to temps, added 40,000.

2. Healthcare added 22,000, with 19,000 of that coming in ambulatory health-care services.

3. Retail added 26,000.

4. Food services and drinking places added 9,000.

I have no doubt that the U.S. is doing better than everyone else, but whatever good news there is (and it’s masking bad data too) is in spite of the administration, not because of them. Just as fracking has been a savior for the U.S. energy supply—again, in spite of the admin, although Obama tried to take credit for it during his last election.

If government would just get out of the way, private industry would produce more and we would all have more.

As we are seeing since some months ago, the payroll reports and jobless rates are improving every month. But they don’t show the sweat and tears of a lot of workers who have more than one part-time job and in the end of the month they have to count more than twice the money they have to pay basic payments and buy food.

A social system that is only good for the employees of the government institutions, big corporations and companies is not a social system. Today America is divided in 2 Americas, the America of the happy people who always smile in front of the TV cameras and the America of the people who are trapped in a dark labyrinth without end.

That’s just one more way Obama has managed to divide America. There is a lot of joy and applause among liberals that the country is moving again, supposedly thanks to Obama while it is really due to its dynamic private enterprise, but that aside, moving again.

What they fail to see and worry about is how much more divided the country has become the last six years. Not only are incomes down for the bottom half, but socially polarization is at a modern high.

Way to go Obama.

Our economy has undergone the slowest recovery in 70 years.  The drop in unemployment since 2009 is almost entirely due to the fact that those not looking for work don’t count as unemployed.

Demographic factors explain less than 1/4 of the smaller labor force. The rest comes from increased school enrollment and more people collecting disability benefits.

Over 6% of U.S. adults are now on Social Security Disability.

The data doesn’t tell the entire picture. While the unemployment rate has dropped below 6%, the total number of employed persons is lower than it has been since the 1970s under the Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

There is a lot of similarity between the Carter presidency and Barack Obama’s. Both believe in higher taxes, a bigger more centralized government, and more regulations on businesses.

That’s why the results are similar and the economy is still questionable.

We have the highest rate of year over year job growth since the year 2000, yet no wage increases and no clamor to snap up college graduates.

The jobs number no longer has the value it once had. That’s because what it consists of has changed from mostly full-time jobs to mostly part-time jobs.

We have a number where full-time and part-time jobs are counted equally. We know this to be faulty from the start.

The U.S. has a big problem: more and more citizens expecting to be supported by less and fewer workers. There will be a limit to how much the U.S. can run up the debt to pay for that.

It would be nice if an adult who was willing and able to work with Congress was in the presidency. But, alas this is the direction that some Americans have chosen for us.

What do we make of this report?

A large number of the jobs created in November are the kinds of seasonal hiring you expect this time of year, heading into the holiday season. These are not solid, long-term, raise-a-family type jobs.

Our very vibrant and normally strong U.S. free-enterprise based economy runs in spite of not because of the economic policies of President Obama.

Government creates nothing of economic value. Government spending is offset 100% by taxes and national debt that are taken from our economy. At its very best, government provides a necessary level of intrusion (drag) on our economy to provide for national defense, law enforcement, interstate commerce, etc.

When an economy goes into recession, astute leaders reduce government intrusion, not increase it.

Tax increases, runaway federal regulation, Obamacare are just a few examples why average American middle class family income has dropped to 1989 levels in less than six years.

For President Obama to now claim credit for our economy, in spite of their actions, and to claim that average Americans are better off is totally absurd.

It took 6 years to regain the lost jobs under the Democrat controlled Congress. But then again, the economic policies of hate and envy put in place by the Obama administration were not designed to improve the economy. They were designed to punish the hardworking and successful so that liberals would not feel so inadequate.

Want proof – let’s review:

• First US sovereign debt downgrade in history.

• Federal spending highest portion of GDP since WW II.

• Lowest homeownership rate (59.7%) since 1965.

• Lowest labor participation rate (58.1%) since 1983.

• Highest long-term unemployment (45.9%) since the 1930’s.

• Slowest job growth following a recession since WW II.

• Highest government dependency (47%) in U.S. history.

• Lowest percentage of taxpayers paying income taxes (49%) in modern era.

• Largest budget deficit (10% of GDP and 40% of federal spending) since WW II.

• Highest number of Americans on Food Stamps in history.

• Lowest percentage of Cabinet appointments with private sector experience (8%).

But the Obama folks have done well at loosing Iraq, allowing ISIS to grow stronger in many countries, helping develop city-killer weapons, insult our allies, create a monster healthcare failure, attack the hard-working and successful, and using the IRS to target political enemies.

There seem to be a lot of liberal progressives having orgasms over the employment figures. I’d like for them to explain how come median incomes have been dropping steadily the last five years.

Simple fact, this “recovery” remains the most pathetic in memory. At no time in a recovery where annual GDP should be over 4% has it been over 2.5% — and often it has been under 2%.

And the monthly job gains have usually been less than needed just to keep up with population.

It will be interesting to see if the American people buy this as a true reflection of economic health.

How many people feel they were forced into early retirement? How many people hold two and maybe even three part-time jobs just to get by? How many college grads ended up living with mom and dad, working part-time in a job well below their qualifications? How do these people feel about their circumstances?

The sense I have is that the Obama administration can put out as many rosy sounding numbers as it wants and minimize or ignore the true picture.

What is really going to matter in 2015, are the real life experiences of people under this administration, how they feel about their experience, who they credit or blame for that experience.