A Bad Jobs Number

August employment data was just released and it does not provide a pretty picture of the economy. The best one can say is that unemployment was at 9.1% which is just where it was in July. The more accurate number, however, is that the economy created essentially no jobs in August. While there were about 45,000 Verizon workers on strike who got counted in this mix, the number is still terrible. Indeed, we are on the edge of another recession. We may not slide into recession because there is not yet any rise in unemployment, but the odds now have to be put at 50-50. In another piece of poor news, the July jobs figures were revised downward substantially. Further, the average hours worked by those with jobs in August declined marginally. This number affects everyone, so it could portend a drop in retail sales due to lower incomes.

Clearly, the economy is not doing well. And this gives rise to the question of what to do about it. President Obama claims he is going to give his answer in a speech on Thursday. Of course, I wonder if he will have anything new to say. I think this is the seventy-fifth big speech supposed to contain a new economic plan to come from Obama; each time he says essentially the same thing. What is truly needed is for Obama to come to the realization that his prior actions did not work and that America needs to try something new to get growth back.