White House disappointed in jobs numbers, but takes broader view

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Today was supposed to be a good day for the Obama administration with upbeat jobs numbers helping the government pivot away from a series of down days tied to airline security issues.

Instead, this morning’s jobless numbers showed that the economy unexpectedly lost 85,000 jobs in December, even though the overall unemployment rate stayed unchanged at 10%.

“The employment report was worse than expected, we know now that we had a setback from November,” Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors, said this morning on MSNBC. “So, of course, it is a bit of a disappointment.

“The important thing,” she said, “is to look at the broader picture.”

That broader picture shows that over time, the number of lost jobs is easing while overall economic production is increasing, indicating that the worst of the recession may be easing. Government stimulus spending, tax breaks for home sales and car purchases have helped in the last year.

But many of those programs will be expiring in the coming months and there have been calls for more job creation efforts, especially as the nation heads into the midterm elections.

With polls showing President Obama’s approval rating below 50% and many voters unhappy about the pace of economic recovery, there have been calls for more government stimulus money.

Obama will discuss the jobless numbers later today and is expected to take the same tone as Romer: Today’s numbers are not good but the overall trend is looking up and that his administration tends to move to create more jobs, especially in the green sector.

“We’re on an improving trajectory,” Romer said, predicting that “job growth by spring is still realistic.”

-- Michael Muskal

Twitter.com/LATimesmuskal