Net job loss is never good, but most of the losses were predicted:
The path to economic recovery remained a twisted one on Friday as the government reported a net loss of 125,000 jobs in the American economy last month, driven by the evaporation of temporary Census jobs, the Labor Department reported.Pretty clear that the economic crisis still isn't over for millions of Americans. Instead of concerns about debt, members of Congress should be very worried about the huge number of unemployed:
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, fell to 9.5 percent from 9.7 percent in May.
The job loss was in line with expectations. And with the anticipated loss of hundreds of thousands of Census jobs — jobs that had accounted for almost all the growth in the labor market in May — economists were focused in particular on the change in private-sector hiring. There, the news was better but muted, with 83,000 new jobs created.
The effects of the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February 2009, as well as other measures intended to prop up markets, like the home buyers’ tax credit initiative and cash for clunkers, have been petering out. Meanwhile, a bill to renew an extension of unemployment benefits has been languishing for the last month as legislators debate whether the country’s deficit can withstand additional stimulus spending.The bigger question is whether we can withstand not having additional stimulus spending. And, instead of listening to the likes of Olympia Snowe, who cut billions and billions from the 2009 stimulus package, the Obama administration should have listened to Krugman and Stiglitz who said spend more.
