Job report shows strongest growth in private sector jobs since April
Job report shows strongest growth in private sector jobs since April
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBSON: Now to that jobs report. We turn to Chris Low, as we do every Friday. He’s Chief Economist at FTN Financial. And he joins us this morning live from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Chris, have you had any chocolate yet this morning?
CHRIS LOW: I’m so far just one Hersey kiss.
HOBSON: Okay, more than me. So the unemployment rate stays the same — 9.6 percent — but the private sector is responsible for an additional 159,000 jobs. You subtract 8,000 government jobs that were lost,and you have the big number — 151,000 new jobs. What does all this tell you?
LOW: Well I think it’s good news. There are two separate surveys which complicates things. That’s why the unemployment rate didn’t move. The jobs did. They sometimes submerge month to month — they’ll come back together down the road. But I think the real news here is that we’ve got the strongest growth in private sector employment since April. And it is also trending upward over the last several months.
HOBSON: Alright well let’s hear from the President. He spoke earlier this hour about this report. Let’s take a listed.
BARACK OBAMA: An encouraging jobs report doesn’t make a difference if you’re still one of the millions of people who are looking for work. And I won’t be satisfied until everybody who is looking for a job can find one.
So he was obviously happy about this number but didn’t want to seem too cheery about it. Chris Low…dig into those numbers for us. Where are these jobs coming from?
LOW: Well it’s pretty broad based. Some of the improvement came today because the rate of state and local layoffs slowed down. But digging in it’s on the service side — manufacturing jobs are still falling although it was the smallest job loss there in a while. But on the service side, retail was up, transportation was up, the biggest gain was in temporary workers.
HOBSON: Chris Low, Chief Economist at FTN Financial. Thanks so much for your time.
LOW: Thank you.
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