The recovery in the US jobs market hit the skids in March with just 88,000 new jobs being created, less than half the figure economists had been expecting. The figure, the first since Washington implemented deep spending cuts, reanimated fears that the still lackluster recovery would suffer a “spring swoon”.
The unemployment rate dipped slightly to 7.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced, but the dip from 7.7% came only because 496,000 people stopped looking for work and fell out of the workforce. The surprisingly poor numbers triggered a sell-off on the US stock markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 139 points as the market opened, and closing down over 40 points after two up days.
The number was far worse than expected. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast that 200,000 new jobs were created in March – down from 236,000 jobs added in February. Private companies added only 95,000 jobs. Federal government payroll jobs fell by 14,000 as 12,000 postal workers were laid off.
The problem with the US economy is simple. The 1 percent steal over 30 percent of the national income compared with about 8 percent thirty-three years ago. The 1 percent invest their money in derivatives, politicians, legislation that ships jobs overseas such as free trade treaties and overseas tax havens, rather than purchasing the goods and services necessary to create jobs. Meanwhile, the 99 percent takes home 68 percent of the national income compared to 92 percent way back when the economy was creating jobs left and right. Nowadays, the 99 percent don’t have the cash necessary to create jobs at the same rate as thirty-three years ago.
President Obama knows this. The Republicans know this. The Democrats know this. But they don’t give a rat’s ass, at least very few of them do. They’re on Wall Street’s payroll. Wall Street wins again by sucking main street financially dryer.
