Friday, March 10, 2006

The Economy is Good Stupid

Contrary to popular belief, the US economy is doing great according to most economists. Even with ridiculous gas prices, a war on terror, and a large trade deficit, the economy continues to impress. The newly released Labor statistics from February illustrate the upward trend.
Hiring gained ground in February with employers adding 243,000 jobs, the most in three months.Brighter job prospects sent people streaming into the labor market, however, pushing the unemployment rate up marginally to 4.8 percent.

The story continues:
"Businesses are appearently seeing strong enough growth in demand for their goods and services to look for more workers-- and businesses are being forced to pay up for them because wages are rising strongly, too," said economist Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "The job market is becoming more and more friendly if you are a worker or looking to become one."
The unemployment rate inched up to 4.8 percent from a 4 1/2 year low of 4.7 percent in January. the bump-up in the jobless rate came as people -- feeling better about job prospects -- applied for work.
"You are seeing a large number of people coming out of the woodwork because there are jobs to be found. People are now looking for jobs because it is now worth looking," said Bill Cheney, chief economist at John Hancock.

For some reason, the positive news about the economy is largly under reported in the media. But the fact is that the economy is as good as its been since the recession we had when Bill Clinton left office in early 2001.

Source Yahoo Finance

-Brad

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