Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   Labor report a mixed bag Date:   1/9/2015 11:14:38 AM

The economy added 252,000 new jobs and upwardly revised by 50,000 the previous months.  Good news indeed.  That is tempered by a labor participation rate being the lowest in 36 years.  So we added 252,000 jobs last month but 450,000 gave up hope of finding a job and have left the labor market.  This accounts for the entire reduction in the U2 to 5.6% and the reduction of U6 (real unemployment) down to 11.2%.  Probably worse news is that average earnings have once again dropped so the quality of jobs created may not be that great.  

Thanks God we finally have some adults in charge in DC resulting in more optimism on the hiring front. Still a lot of work to get done to overcome the last 6 plus years of abject incompetence.  Lots of veto's to override or the momentum will be lost for sure....until we get a Republican in the WH anyway.