Despite what you will hear from the mainstream media the monthly unemployment report issued today by the Department of Labor shows signs of economic slowdown.
The average unemployment rate fell from 7.7% in February to 7.6% in March that's the good news, but behind that number is the fact the rate fell only because more people stopped looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they are actively looking for a job.
The Economy added only 88,000 jobs in March a huge disappointment as economists had been predicting numbers 90,000-100,000 higher (200 economists surveyed by Reuters collectively predicted that 200,000 jobs would be added).
The civilian labor force declined by 496,000 over the month, and the labor force participation rate decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 63.3%, the lowest level of participation since March 2012.
Futures trading on Wall Street in major indexes began sinking as soon as the report was released. And investors fled to the safety of U.S. Treasury bonds, where prices soared and yields plummeted.For the past three years the numbers seem to improve at the beginning of the year only to disappoint in the spring, leading to a bummer summer. And of course, there is always a reason...instability in the Middle East, winter storms, a the wrong contestant wins American Idol.
The truth is the reason the economy refuses to grow is the business busting policies of the Obama Administration.
The mainstream media (and the Administration) will probably blame the sequester for the slowdown, but if there is one "villain" it is probably due to the trillions of dollars of Obamacare and Fiscal cliff tax increases imposed on the American people this past January.
Fasten your seat-belts because the economy is NOT going to get better soon.
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