É o
melhor registo mensal desde o início da era Obama e desde a crise de 2008. Um valor favorecido com os mais de 40 mil empregos criados pelo Estado, para se fazer o censo da população, é certo, mas não deixam de ser sinais animadores...
Análise de
Eamon Javers, no
Politico.com:
«President Barack Obama got the first unequivocally good news on the nation’s employment picture Friday, as new government figures showed the nation gained 162,000 jobs in March.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. That’s the first time the nation has gained, rather than lost, jobs since late 2007, with the exception of November 2009, which many economists saw as a fluke.
Reversing the unrelenting jobs decline has been a central goal of the Obama administration, and it has been politically crucial for Democrats to demonstrate progress on the jobs front ahead of the midterm elections in November.
The news will not have an immediate effect on the stock market, where the Dow has been surging toward the psychologically important 11,000 marker this week because Wall Street is closed today for Good Friday.
The employment number was not high enough to beat expectations of many economists, who were looking for a gain of 200,000 or more.
Many economists say that about 150,000 of the new jobs can be explained away by the combination of a bounce-back effect from the February snowstorms, as snowed-in workers got back to their job sites in March and by massive temporary hiring by the U.S. Census of as many as 50,000 canvassers.
Still, a positive number will almost immediately change the political dynamic, as Republicans — who have issued press releases demanding “Where are the jobs, Mr. President?” nearly every time the monthly jobs figure has been released for the past several months, will lose a key talking point.
The White House has positioned itself to capitalize on the news, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner scheduled for an interview on Bloomberg Television at 11:30 a.m. and Obama in Charlotte, N.C., to talk jobs and the economy at an advanced battery technology facility around midday.
Despite a positive trend line, the White House is trying not to appear to be resting on its laurels, given the devastation that the financial meltdown has inflicted on much of the nation.
Christina Romer, chairwoman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, was cautious in her response to the jobs report, calling it a sign of “gradual labor market healing.”
“Even after adjusting for the 48,000 temporary Census workers hired and a rebound effect from the February snowstorms, this number suggests an increase in underlying payroll employment,” she said, noting that for the first quarter of 2010 job growth averaged 54,000 per month versus average monthly job losses of 753,000 per month in the first quarter of 2009.
At the same time that we welcome today’s encouraging labor market news, it is obvious that the American labor market remains severely distressed. ... There will likely be bumps in the road ahead.”
"I'm thrilled," Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) chairwoman of the Joint Economic Committee told POLITICO. "This is the best news we've seen in a while." Maloney said she was particularly impressed that 123,000 of the new jobs were in the private sector, and that key sectors such as manufacturing saw boosts in hiring. "I'm optimistic, but also realistic," she said. "It will take a long time to bring down our unacceptable unemployment."
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, in a statement, said that “no matter what spin the White House puts on these job numbers, it is unacceptable for President Obama to declare economic success when unemployment remains at 9.7 percent and a large portion of the job growth came from temporary boost in government employment.
“As Democrats grow Big Government, Americans grow weary of the strain on family budgets, job security and peace of mind. As America’s employers announce the frightening and immediate impact of the Democrat government-run health care experiment on their balance sheets, American workers wonder why the only place exempt from increasingly painful belt-tightening seems to be Washington, D.C. In November, the American voters will deliver a few more pink slips — to congressional Democrats.”
Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) said that while “new job opportunities for the American people are always welcome news…we have still yet to see the robust private sector job creation the Obama administration promised would come from its $862 billion failed stimulus.
“This administration has spent more than a year trying to grow the economy by expanding government, even though history shows that strong and sustainable economic growth must begin in the private sector.”
While most players on both sides of the aisle assume that the employment agony in the country has been a major drag on Obama’s popularity, two Republican analysts at Hamilton Place Strategies issued a white paper Thursday making the case that positive jobs growth does not immediately affect a president’s popularity.
“It usually takes months for presidential approval to recover after a return to job growth,” wrote Tony Fratto and Taylor Griffin.
“The early Reagan presidency provides an instructive analogy. When jobs numbers finally began to improve, it was 10 months before Reagan’s approval broke above 50 percent again.”
Interest in Friday’s jobs number has been so high that the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which compiles the data, scheduled its first ever live Web chat for 9:30 a.m. BLS subject matter experts said they would take questions on national unemployment data at www.bls.gov/chat.»
