Grumpy Editor

February jobs figures coverage sidetracks full picture

Friday’s release of jobs figures, showing 227,000 added in February, underscores confusion in media when the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the monthly compilation, noticed Grumpy Editor.

Print and especially broadcast media made in sound like there was a major turnaround in employment numbers, giving a hefty boost to the economy. 

But played down, or completely omitted, in news reports were other figures in the same BLS news release. 

Nonfarm payroll employment may have been up by 227,000, but quoting from the same news release: 

+  “The number of unemployed persons, at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged in February.”  (The BLS news release’s first sentence mentioned “the unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.3 percent.”) 

+  “The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was little changed at 5.4 million in February.” 

Adding to the fuzzy mix was the insertion of an explanation by some writers.  The Washington Post, for example, offered: 

“Though the monthly unemployment rate remained unchanged in February at 8.3 percent, economists said that was the result of more people starting to look for work again as they became encouraged by the growing economy.” 

While Grumpy Editor found the jobs report made front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Oregonian and Philadelphia Inquirer, it did not get such treatment in others. 

Putting the report on inside pages were the Denver Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Hartford Courant, Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Honolulu Star Advertiser, Des Moines Register, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News, (Cleveland) Plain Dealer down to Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star.

 

Few raise eyebrows after BLS January employment tally

Heavy broadcast and print coverage Friday and over the weekend stemmed from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Feb. 3 news release on employment for January, loaded with upbeat figures amazingly compiled and swiftly released only three days after the end of the first month of 2012, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Most editors and business writers, seeking to get the details out promptly, ran with the information.  Few raised eyebrows.

The story topped most radio/TV broadcasts and grabbed front-page space heralding the pace of job creation as total nonfarm payroll employment in January rose by 243,000 while the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in December, according to BLS. 

Job growth was widespread in the private sector, with large employment gains in professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing, BLS added.

Government employment changed little over the month, it pointed out. 

But missed by many was this BLS message relating to “changes to the employment situation data”: 

“Establishment survey data have been revised as a result of the annual benchmarking process and the updating of seasonal adjustment factors.” 

Writers, with more time, would call for a government jargon translator for that line. 

So how many business writers were led astray? 

Newsmax writer Amy Woods related Rush Limbaugh on his Friday radio show said, “The jobless rate reported today is ‘corrupt as it can be’ because President Barack Obama’s administration has decreased the size of the work force.”

Jeff Cox, CNBC.com senior writer mentioned, “The January numbers can be volatile as the Bureau of Labor Statistics makes seasonal adjustments. This year's round produced 1.25 million fewer people in the work force in December, a number that drew some focus as evidence that the drop in the jobless rate could be misleading.”

Some alert business writers pointed out that 11 million people either have stopped looking for jobs or are, reluctantly, working part time.  When that figure is added to the 12.8 million unemployed, almost 24 million people are considered underemployed.

See the full BLS news release here.

 

Obama, blasting Vegas in past, seeks funds there today

On the way to Los Angeles today, President Barack Obama’s 747 makes a stop in Las Vegas --- the city that he once warned convention planners against visiting “on the taxpayers’ dime” and “you can’t go take that trip to Las Vegas” --- with a tight schedule that manages to work in a mid-day fundraiser, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Seems strange that the city he knocked since early 2009 is where he will hold a re-election campaign fundraiser at the Bellagio, an MGM Resorts International property mid-way on the Las Vegas Strip. 

The president’s 2009 remarks immediately scared off tourist and convention activity and resulted in canceled gatherings, affecting the Las Vegas economy where casinos and supporting businesses are the prime industries. 

Las Vegas in recent years depended more on hosting business conferences than casino action. 

The president followed his anti-Las Vegas warning to convention planners in February 2009 with another blast a year later when he declared, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” 

Las Vegas now leads the nation as ground zero in home foreclosures while the unemployment rate stands at a hefty 13.6 percent --- 4.5 percent higher than the national rate. 

With those negative developments in mind, Obama (32 months after his initial slap at Las Vegas) “will continue to talk about the economy and the need to create jobs” in his Nevada visit, said White House spokesman Jay Carney on Friday. 

This was echoed on a national scale Saturday when Obama said the United States must tackle its “greatest challenge as a nation,” rebuilding a weak economy and creating jobs.

 

DeMint prefers written proposals from White House

Newspaper publishers and editors, concerned about fall-off in advertising revenue, especially from small businesses, may have missed Sen. Jim DeMint's remarks over the Labor Day weekend in which the South Carolina Republican --- with eyes on President Barack Obama’s address tomorrow night before a joint session of Congress --- declared he is “tired of speeches” and prefers written proposals, notes Grumpy Editor.

Uncertainty over taxes and other measures have kept many businesses from hiring.   A dismal jobs report on Friday and the stock market’s continued downward movement have added thrust to the current gloom and talk about a "double dip" recession. 

With the cloudy economic outlook, businesses have been cautious on expenditures.  And that includes newspaper advertising. 

Appearing on Sunday’s ABC’s This Week, DeMint declared, “I'm, frankly, very tired of speeches.” 

He added, “"I don't want to be disrespectful to the president, but what I want to see is something in writing, and that the Congressional Budget Office tells us what it's going to cost so that we can not only read it ourselves, but the American people can read it." 

The White House in recent weeks has floated ideas such as extending unemployment benefits and payroll tax cuts, and offering tax credits for new hiring.

DeMint said businesses instead are seeking certainty on tax policy and less regulation.

"The things that have been leaking out of the White House, none of them are like what I've been hearing from businesses all over the country," mentioned DeMint.

Meanwhile, Obama, in a Labor Day speech in Detroit --- previewing content in his jobs-and-the-economy speech tomorrow --- said roads and bridges nationwide need rebuilding and more than one million unemployed construction workers are itching to "get dirty" making repairs. 

He portrayed Congress as an obstacle to getting that work done.

 

L.A. Times writer gets layoff word while in the Arctic

Grumpy Editor recalls with media layoffs in earlier years, Friday afternoons were the dreaded times editors called staffers together and announced those slated for sad, usually unexpected, departures.  Others simply were sent pink slips. 

Nowadays, emails --- received at home or at newsroom desks --- sometimes are used to convey departure words from management not wishing to face staffers. 

About the strangest place to get a layoff email:  Alaska, 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle --- and almost 3,000 miles from the newsroom. 

That’s the location of a recent message received by Margot Roosevelt, environment reporter for the Los Angeles Times. 

Kevin Roderick in his LAObserved.com disclosed where Roosevelt received The Times email, along with her farewell note to the newsroom. 

“I was about to get on a helicopter (thanks to a two-week science journalism grant) with biologists who study how Arctic fire is changing earth’s climate,” wrote Roosevelt, who joined The Times four years ago after 20 years with Time magazine and 13 years with the Washington Post. 

“Been sleeping in a cold tent, fending off mosquito swarms and happily roaming over moss-green tundra, the lavender peaks of the Brooks Range in the distance,” she continued. 

“I’ve loved the L.A. Times. I’m grateful to have worked with so many people I admire.  I’m heartbroken to be leaving.  Please keep in touch.”

Meanwhile, among others in a new round of layoffs at the L.A. Times, Roderick mentioned Tim Rutten, op-ed columnist and book reviewer, would be laid off after 39 years --- one year short of retirement.

 

Bloomberg Businessweek article considers ‘illegals’ a plus

Today, with Webster’s New World Dictionary in hand and with this week’s Bloomberg Businessweek in mind, Grumpy Editor focuses on the word:  illegal.

An adjective, it means “prohibited by law; against the law; unlawful; illicit; also, not authorized or sanctioned, as by rules.” 

And when used as a noun, it refers to “an alien who has entered the U.S. illegally.” 

Which brings us to the front-of-book “Set Them Free” piece in the July 11 issue written by Charles Kenny, a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor. 

In the two-page spread under the sub-head, “Laws against illegal immigration make little economic or moral sense.  So why punish the brave citizens who break them?,” Kenny writes, “If forced to do without illegal labor, vast sectors of the U.S. economy, from agriculture to construction, would founder...” 

A photo accompanying the text shows five Mexican women looking at a beach barrier along the Tijuana border.

(As copies of the magazine rolled off presses, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 14.1 million unemployed persons with the unemployment rate at 9.2 percent in June. 

(Since March, the number of unemployed persons increased by 545,000 as the unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percent, BLS added.) 

Noting about 11 million people living illegally in the U.S., Kenny mentions a 2010 paper written by three economists “looked across U.S. industries and found that the net effect of immigration has been to create more jobs for native workers --- including low-skilled workers.”

 

Where are the jobs? 'Tight' bankers curb hiring by firms

With unemployment figures rising to 9.2 percent in June and cries for creating jobs, one of the overlooked --- especially by media --- “villains” in the picture are banks which continue to be stingy on making loans for expansions of businesses, notes Grumpy Editor.

More than 14.1 million workers are currently unemployed. The number of long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, remains steady at 6.3 million. 

Many small businesses, especially, are handcuffed in hiring additional workers, expanding or making capital expenditures because of tight credit. 

This includes businesses with solid bottom lines and long relationships with financial institutions that remain frugal when it comes to loans. 

However, major banks welcome deposits, but at puny interest rates. 

Citibank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and other major banks pay a minuscule 0.30 annual percentage yield (APY) or less on one-year certificates of deposit (CDs). 

Despite sluggish loan growth in its latest quarter, J.P. Morgan Chase, for example, posts a strong increase in profit while loans fall 4 percent from a year prior. 

Many financial institutions are thriving on fees and other charges. 

Some businesses need bank funds to cope with inflationary pressures, even though federal announcements claim inflation remains “tame,” a word echoed in media reports. 

Meanwhile, bankers with low loan output point to regulators urging lenders to demand proof that loans will be repaid.  In addition, loan officers claim there is less money to lend because regulators are requiring banks to hold more capital in case loans default. 

Bottom line:  Correcting the current tight money problem for businesses still points to Washington legislators and the White House which can remedy the situation in efforts to boost the economy and create jobs to get America back on track.

 

Few eyebrows raised on speedy March employment tally

Anyone dealing with the federal government knows it takes time to get responses to simple questions while tabulation of accurate official figures often takes months, sometimes years, so Grumpy Editor finds it interesting that the March “employment situation summary” from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was wrapped up immediately after last Thursday, the last day of the month, ready for dissemination within 8½ hours.

Statistics galore were in the lengthy news release embargoed until 8:30 a.m. (EDT) on April 1.

That’s speedy work on highly-followed data.

The key news was that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 216,000 in March, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 8.8 percent.

The news release covered March unemployment rates for seven categories of workers and cited the number of those jobless for (the rather odd period) of 27 weeks or more.

The March tally also indicated the number of persons “employed part time for economic reasons” and the number of discouraged workers --- “persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them.”

Figures also were associated with March employment in the service-providing sector, the leisure and hospitality category, manufacturing (along with sub-categories), mining and local government, among others.

The news release also pinpointed $22.87 as the “average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls” in March.

(Keep in mind there were about 26 million firms in the latest U.S. Census Bureau count.)

All these figures, and others for March, were assembled before the clock struck midnight, ushering in April.

Eyebrow-raising editors, usually suspicious of  figures --- from attendance at baseball games to precipitation amounts from the Weather Service --- were mum on the instant tabulations that made front pages in many newspapers around the country and led-off radio and television news on April 1.

The words "estimated" or "sampling" did not appear in the news release, indicating the figures were firm.

This month’s employment figures, however, will be issued a few days after April 30.

The summary is scheduled for May 6 --- at 8:30 a.m. (EDT).