Jobs numbers mean a little political joy for Obama administration

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The Obama administration greeted the good jobs news this morning with caution. Instead of hip, hip, hooray, it was more like a single, muted hip.

“It’s a bit of good news,” Christina Romer, chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors said on MSNBC. “Any time the unemployment rate comes down, that’s a very good thing.”

But the administration’s top economist was cautious about the up-and-down nature of business statistics.
“I’ve been very careful in months where we have had worse-than-expected news to say, ‘Don’t read too much into one month.’” she said. “And in a month with better-than-expected news, I got to say the same thing.”

“There are many bumps in the road ahead,” she said in a later statement. “The monthly employment and unemployment numbers are volatile and subject to substantial revision. Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report, positive or negative. But it is clear we are moving in the right direction.”

Still, the drop in the national unemployment rate from 10.2% to 10% was welcome news, especially since President Obama is in the middle of a jobs offensive. This morning, he will visit Allentown, Pa., to talk about job creation, a follow-up to Thursday’s White House summit on the same issue. On Tuesday, he will address the nation on the economy, usually identified as voters’ top concern.

Obama is expected to stress his two usual themes today: His administration’s plan is working since the economy seems to be growing a bit out of the recession. And although things may be getting better, there is still a long way to go, especially for the millions who have lost jobs in the current recession or have taken part-time jobs because full-time work is unavailable.

The broadest measure of the problems with the jobs market is the U-6 (because that is how the Labor Department calls it), and it includes people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find a full-time job. It also slightly improved, but remains at a stubborn 17.2%, an indication of how poorly off the labor market is.

-- Michael Muskal
twitter.com/LATimesmuskal