2008 Woodie Awards
U.S. job market grows by 166,000
Tyler Larson
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: News
Despite a constantly deepening housing slump, the U.S. economy added 166,000 jobs to the market in October according to the Labor Departments report, which shows the largest increase in five months and twice the expected increase.
"There is no question that employers are more cautious as they look forward, but I think many of them are not seeing it in their actual operations. They need workers and they are hiring," John Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said.
Along with the growth in jobs, the unemployment rate stayed at 4.7 percent, a figure considered low by our historical standards with around 4.25 percent considered maximum job capacity.
Based on these numbers, many economists feel that the talk of a recession may be a bit premature.
"If you look at the numbers, our economy is actually in pretty good standing right now," Dr. Ken Mayland, president and founder of ClearView Economics, said.
"Right now, the fear of economic peril is not really warranted," Mayland added.
The job markets where the most progress was shown were in schools, hospitals, bars and restaurants, temporary-help firms, legal services, hotels and motels and government jobs. These mass hiring's were able to offset the loss of work at factories, construction companies and mortgage businesses.
"We're at a point where the economy is quite simple to figure out," Mayland said.
"It basically boils down to this, the more we put into the economy, the more we will get out of it," Mayland added.
The addition to the U.S. job market was far better than many economists first believed with many predictions only adding around 80,000 jobs to the market.
"The normal growth for the economy in the job market is around 3.25 percent with my prediction for the term being around 3.4 percent," Mayland said.
"This month saw a growth of 3.9 percent in the job market, which is really an astronomical figure," Mayland added.
"There is no question that employers are more cautious as they look forward, but I think many of them are not seeing it in their actual operations. They need workers and they are hiring," John Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said.
Along with the growth in jobs, the unemployment rate stayed at 4.7 percent, a figure considered low by our historical standards with around 4.25 percent considered maximum job capacity.
Based on these numbers, many economists feel that the talk of a recession may be a bit premature.
"If you look at the numbers, our economy is actually in pretty good standing right now," Dr. Ken Mayland, president and founder of ClearView Economics, said.
"Right now, the fear of economic peril is not really warranted," Mayland added.
The job markets where the most progress was shown were in schools, hospitals, bars and restaurants, temporary-help firms, legal services, hotels and motels and government jobs. These mass hiring's were able to offset the loss of work at factories, construction companies and mortgage businesses.
"We're at a point where the economy is quite simple to figure out," Mayland said.
"It basically boils down to this, the more we put into the economy, the more we will get out of it," Mayland added.
The addition to the U.S. job market was far better than many economists first believed with many predictions only adding around 80,000 jobs to the market.
"The normal growth for the economy in the job market is around 3.25 percent with my prediction for the term being around 3.4 percent," Mayland said.
"This month saw a growth of 3.9 percent in the job market, which is really an astronomical figure," Mayland added.
Be the first to comment on this story