Jobs Initiative Coming--Just In Time!

Thanks, as always, to Calculated Risk for this one.

President Barack Obama will be speechifying before Congress next Thursday night on how to create more jobs in the United States. He had originally asked for Wednesday, but Republicans said that an intramural debate scheduled for that night was more important. Barry typically deferred. Anyway, what's the rush? Over 8 million workers have lost their jobs since the Greater Depression started in 2008. They have waited almost four years. They can wait one more day.

Data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning could hardly have been less encouraging for the disemployed. According to the Establishment Survey, zero non-farm jobs were created in August. That is bad news for Obama, who will be out of a job himself if he keeps putting up goose eggs. Moreover, 58,000 jobs thought to have been created in June and July were, oops, canceled, dropping the three-month total to +105,000. Which means few employers besides McDonalds were hiring.

Numbers, numbers, who's got the numbers? The Household Survey says that non-agricultural jobs increased by 309,000 in August. But then again, the number of part-time jobs increased by 430,000. Do the math with me: the number of FULL-time jobs decreased by 121,000. Back to the Establishment Survey. Month over month, the average work week decreased by 0.1 hour, and average hourly earnings decreased (for the first time since January 2008) by three cents. Anyone else seeing workers getting squeezed?

Whatever plan the President has for unsqueezing, why has he waited two-and-a-half years into his term to reveal it?