Just out from the Labor Department:
Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 215,000 in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today.
Job gains occurred in retail trade, health care, professional and technical services, and financial activities. Household Survey Data In July, both the unemployment rate (5.3 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (8.3 million) were unchanged. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 0.9 percentage point and 1.4 million, respectively. (See table A-1.)
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers declined to 16.2 percent in July. The rates for adult men (4.8 percent), adult women (4.9 percent), whites (4.6 percent), blacks (9.1 percent), Asians (4.0 percent), and Hispanics (6.8 percent) showed little or no change.
“What the hell, Ure…what’s with the highlight?”
That is for our Hispanic readers who are wondering why their unemployment rate is not getting better. You see, more people coming in illegally and that’s not gonna change much, now, is it? Point is if American Hispanics want more jobs, a friendly note to the Obamanistas about how supply and demand works here…naw, they’d never believe it.
More hard, cold reality of the numbers? Sure.
The labor participation rate held steady, which was helped, no doubt by the 69,000 increase in the workforce which we could debate all morning long. But we’re both busy, so let’s get back on point.
The claim is that employment increased by 215,000. Therefore a reasonable question, especially in light of the Challenger job cut numbers from Thursday, would be to ask “Gee, Uncle, how many of these jobs were just estimated into existence in the CES Birth/Death Model that tracks live births and deaths in theory?”
The adjustment for July was +83,000 so the rest may be more reliable.
Markets are not impressed: Dow is down 50, West Texas Intermediate is under $44.50 on the futures market.
And my consigliore and I will be arguing for several hours today over whether copper dropping to the $2.32 range means:
a) The theft of copper will finally slow down.
b) Housing is going into another collapse
c) The president might win his Iran vote and war consumption prospects for casings and such is falling.
Not that it matters, but we both have more important things to do, so we will debate these points and more instead.
After all, we don’t want to unbalance America’s productivity numbers too much, do we?
De Bait
Jonathan Berstein’s piece over at Gloomberg’s pretty good: “Nine Gifted Politicians. One Broken Party. And Trump.”
Personally, I didn’t watch the debate. Allow me to explain: 1. I am not a county whatchacallit so I won’t go to the state whatchamahoozit. And that means I won’t go to the national convention. And that in turn means I won’t have any say until it comes down to election day.
And, in the meantime, I already know who the Aristocrat Party is running (Jeb and Hil), so it’s like cheering at a horse race.
It does absolutely no good to cheer horses and I’ll be damned if I could find a reason to take de bait last night.
Even the WaPo admits “…we learned almost nothing.” That’s nothing. Stand by to learn even less.
As Long As We’re Time-Saving
Another show not watched was Jon Stewart’s last show. You can save 60-minutes of your life (or 42 if you have Tivo and cut commercials) by simply reading this account of the good zingers.
Anything to free up personal time, right? And who needs to watch Hugglary?
And Speaking of Witch
Yes, the dems tried to steal the spotlight.
Yes, your honor, I swear that was a typo. Not like it would be the first one, around here.
Big Busts Dept.
A tip of the roach clip to the Coast Guard for nabbing 12,000 pounds of coke. No, they will not contribute any for your party this weekend. Also video of a coke plane going into the Caribbean over here.
Both vids from the Wall St. Journal. Hmmm…
Headline to Ponder
After Secret Wedding, Jennifer and Justin Head For Honeymoon. But wait. If it was secret, how come everyone knew about it? (rim shot)
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
Does anybody really care?
But in our FWIW Dept. this morning, Pyongyang, North Korea, now has its own time zone.
I’m looking for it to be incorporated into…let me think, here…um…Windows 37?
But seriously (*or not) since Don Williams did Living on Tulsa Time in 1992, does this mean Dennis Rodman is planning to go country with Living on Pyongyang Time?”
Officially, the North Koreans will move their clocks back 30-minutes. But unofficially they have already moved them back 100 years.
Reminds me of the 70’s when bails of MJ would wash up on the beach every day. The surfers would rush to the bails called “Square Grouper” and in a manic fit of glee, stuff their pockets.
The best part… the WOD only costs us $25 Billion per year, that’s about $500 per second. Sure could fix a lot of pot holes on the Interstate with that money.
The best part of the Bloomberg piece was the comment section. Were I a comedian, I would scan comment boards for material…some comments are so funny, not to mention on target, that they would be gold for any comedian…or for most MSM ‘political commentators’ education. Yes, there are still the party line voters that get POed over some comments, but I am surprised frequently by how most are no longer fooled by the useless BS spouted by the ‘many ticks’.