GOOD NEWS? – AT 8:59 A.M. ET:  Claims for unemployment compensation have dropped to their lowest level since 2007.  Is this good news, or a smokescreen?  From AP:

The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped to the lowest level in almost seven years, falling 32,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 300,000.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the four-week average of applications, a less volatile measure, fell 4,750 to 316,250.

Fewer Americans sought benefits last week than at any point since the Great Recession began at the end of 2007. Applications are at their lowest level since May of that year.

Applications are a proxy for layoffs. The decrease suggests that employers expect stronger economic growth in the coming months and are holding onto their workers.

Employers added 192,000 jobs in March, the Labor Department said last week. That follows gains of 197,000 in February, as the unemployment rate stayed at 6.7 percent for the second straight month.

Snowstorms and freezing temperatures in January and December shut down factories, kept shoppers away from stores, and reduced home buying. That cut into growth and hiring. Employers added 144,000 jobs in January and only 84,000 in December.

COMMENT:  The media will paint the brightest possible picture, the better to help the Democrats in this year's midterms.  But the reality is far more grim.  Many people have run out of unemployment benefits.  Many have dropped out of the work force.  We have the smallest percentage of Americans working now than in decades.  And many of the new "jobs" being created are in low-paying sectors, or are part-time jobs.  We know that a disproportionate number of new jobs are in food-service industries, where pay is low.

Our economy has changed dramatically for the worse.  We have to look inside the overall figures to see the truth.  And those industries that do create good, high-paying jobs are being harassed by new Obama regulations all the time. 

We are not doing well.  We will not do well until we restore the kinds of jobs that once made America boom.

April 10, 2014