2004 job growth is the best in 5 years.

[vaulos]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4155171.stm

The US created fewer jobs than expected in December, but analysts said that the dip in hiring was not enough to derail the world's biggest economy.
According to Labor Department figures, 157,000 new jobs were added last month. That took 2004's total to 2.2 million, the best showing in five years.

Job creation was one of last year's main concerns for the US economy.

While worries still remain, the conditions are set for steady growth in 2005, analysts said.

The unemployment rate stayed at 5.4% in December, and about 200,000 jobs will need to be created each month if that figure is to drop.

[Narith]

In what states? In West Michigan we lost over 6000 jobs last month and another 1000+ due to be lost this month. Not sure how many on the east side, and there never were any jobs in the north *snicker*.

[Narith]

Oh and also, are they counting new jobs created, or are they taking total jobs created then subtracting jobs lost? I mean lets say 200,000 were lost last month, does that mean 357,000 were created or does it mean 157,000 were created for a net loss of 43,000?

[vaulos]

No, when we loose jobs, the Labor Department figures show a loss of "X" number of jobs. But, it doesn't take into account how many more jobs are required to keep the unemployment rate from rising due to thier being more people seeking employment, vis-a-vis natural population growth. Hence the little tid-bit about needing to create 200,000 a month in order to lower the unemployment rate.

[Embar Angylwrath]

In what states? In West Michigan we lost over 6000 jobs last month and another 1000+ due to be lost this month. Not sure how many on the east side, and there never were any jobs in the north *snicker*.

Let me guess... most of those were in industries with a heavy union influence.

[Narith]

Ok so then the 157,000 new jobs are just new jobs, it isn't taking into account how many jobs were lost or no longer needed (IE. one new job makes 3 other jobs obsolete but you only show as 1 new job created)?

I am still kinda lost on this, is the 157,000 total the net gain of jobs so we deffinatly were in the positive for job growth, or is it the gross ammount of jobs created before taking into account how many were lost so in essence we may actually be in the negative?

And no Embar, most were in the manufacturing industry (hardest hit and one of if not the biggest job class in Michigan), but as far as I know the two major companies shutting down were not unionized. Only company I heard of that shut down that was not manufacturing per say was a mushroom farm that employed something like 250 people (need to look up the story to find exact figures).

[Ddrak]

So we're almost back to where we were in 2000?

Dd

[Cartumandua]

In what states? In West Michigan we lost over 6000 jobs last month and another 1000+ due to be lost this month. Not sure how many on the east side, and there never were any jobs in the north *snicker*.

Let me guess... most of those were in industries with a heavy union influence.

Or perhaps more accurately, that are manufacturing based. Those jobs are still flowing to China and southeast Asia at a great clip.

[SicTimMitchell]

Anheuser-Busch, where my father-in-law works, is a union shop and they treat their employees like gold. (You would not believe the benefits and perks. How about the "Ambassador Of quality" cards that let you buy so much A-B products in bars every month for friends, on A-B's tab? And it's only in the last few months they removed the free taps from the lunchrooms, deciding they were a liability issue.)

They have never had an unprofitable quarter, and in their entire history (including during prohibition, when they made cereal and soft drink products) their stock has dipped once.

They have opened plants in China and elsewhere -- without any layoffs of unionized American employees.

GM is the most profitable corporation on the face of the earth, and was before all the outsourcing. Don't blame the unions, blame sheer, heartless greed.

[Kulaf]

Not sure GM is the most profitable. They might generalte the most profit, but I belive Ford has always been the most profitable US auto maker.

[superwalrus]

Gm and Ford trade off from year to year on who made the most profit.

Walrus

[Aabe]

Agriculture used to be the highest percent of jobs.

Then manufacturing.

Now we are evolving to the information age??? Don't know how it all is suppose to work, but it was predicted manufacturing would be displaced by something else. Not sure if this is part of the predicted process or not.

[vaulos]

Narith- It is "net" loss/gain. Total jobs created - total jobs lost = net job loss/creation

Just keep in mind that it is only a survey. Actual numbers may vary.