Posted November 2, 2007 11:05 AM
The Swamp
by Mark Silva
The White House is touting today's jobs report not so much for the past month's growing employment, but for the unbroken string of gains that it represents:
-- "8.31 Million Jobs Created Since August 2003 In Longest Continuous Months Of Job Growth On Record,'' the White House boasts today.
The figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today – 166,000 jobs created in October -- play into the Bush administration's argument that its tax-cuts have helped keep the economy on course, despite any number of stressors in the past years, stressors continuing today with the spiraling cost of oil and epidemic of home mortgage foreclosures.
"Our economy has now added jobs for 50 straight months – the longest period of uninterrupted job growth on record,'' the White House says today.
Unemployment, it notes, remains "low at 4.7 percent.''
With the Gross Domestic Product growing by 3.9 percent in the third quarter of this year, the White House adds, "the economy has now experienced six years of uninterrupted growth, averaging 2.8 percent a year since 2001.''
See the other indicators that the White House cites for the president's argument that the "fundamentals'' of the U.S. economy are strong:
Ø Real after-tax per capita personal income has risen by 12.7 percent – an average of over $3,800 per person – since President Bush took office.
Ø Real wages rose 1.2 percent over the 12 months that ended in September. This rise is faster than the average rate during the 1990s.
Ø Since the first quarter of 2001, productivity growth has averaged 2.6 percent per year. This growth is well above average productivity growth in the 1990s, 1980s, and 1970s.
Ø The deficit today is at 1.2 percent of GDP, well below the 40-year average. Economic growth contributed to a 6.7 percent rise in tax receipts in FY 2007, following an increase of 11.8 percent in FY 2006.
tax increases in the farm bill, the energy bill, the small business bill, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) bill.
Ø The President proposed a responsible level of discretionary spending in his FY 2008 Budget, and he will veto annual spending bills that exceed this level. |
