It's hard to argue the facts, but you can find spin everywhere you turn. It's a presidential election year, after all.
The fact is, the American economy managed to churn out 96,000 jobs last month, according to the latest labor Department report. It was enough to tamp down the unemployment rate from July's 8.3 percent to 8.1 percent.
While the actual percentage of unemployed appears to have dipped, two other things have to be considered: One, the number of jobs created actually fell well short of the government's expectations, by more than 40,000. Keep in mind that in 2011, the economy averaged 153,000 jobs a month, and has been generating an average of 139,000 a month so far this year.
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And, two, the jobless number dipped because so many simply gave up.
"Although the unemployment rate improved in August, it was for the wrong reasons," explains Russell Price, senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services. "The improvement was entirely due to a lower labor force participation rate, which fell to 63.5 percent from 63.7 percent. The household survey, the survey which the unemployment rate is based upon, actually showed a loss of 119,000 net jobs in August which follows a loss of 195,000 jobs in July."
As the experts – and the Associated Press already pointed out – these discouraging numbers drop on the heels of the Democratic National Convention and will almost certainly lay a speed bump in the path of any momentum the president hoped to ride out of Charlotte.
His opponents pounced at the chance to help with that, with GOP Nominee Mitt Romney's camp releasing a statement promising 12 million new jobs by the end of his first term while running mate Paul Ryan told AP it was a case of failed leadership based on "bad fiscal policy.
On the other side of the spin, Alan Krueger, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, remained steadfastly optimistic, pointing out in a statement that the private sector added 103,000 jobs, marking 30 months of straight improvement.
But amid all the other dreary numbers scattered throughout the monthly report – such as drops in hourly, government and manufacturing jobs – is the specter of joblessness that haunts one of the president's favorite constituencies, the youngsters. According to Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit, non-partisan youth advocacy group, unemployment among 18-to-29-year-olds for July hovered near 13 percent. This is also a group that's bailing on the labor force altogether, with more than 1.7 million of them throwing in the towel.
But as AP's Paul Wiseman points out, there is a silver lining. At this rate, the nation's payrolls should reach January 2009 levels in the jobs report that will just days before the election.
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