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By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: December 3, 2005
The nation's employers added 215,000 jobs last month, the government reported yesterday, as the economy rebounded from the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina.
Michael Nagle for the New York Times
Checking out the job classified ads at a resource center in Manhattan. The economy added 215,000 jobs in November, the most since July.
The strong November number, the biggest monthly increase since July, suggested that employers are scrambling for workers in response to a strongly growing economy. But on the fourth anniversary of the recovery from the 2001 recession, job growth is still below the levels achieved in previous recoveries, and the unemployment rate has been stuck at 5 percent nearly every month since June.
"We're back on track after the ill effects of the hurricanes," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, referring to Wilma, which hit southern Florida in late October, as well as Katrina in late August. "But it is also fair to conclude that global competition and corporate layoffs are weighing on job growth."
In releasing the employment data for November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that at least 900,000 people age 16 or older - one-third of them black - evacuated in August because of Hurricane Katrina and that half had returned by last month. Most apparently came back to jobs.
The unemployment rate among the returnees was 12.5 percent, while 27.8 percent of those still living elsewhere were unemployed. Hundreds of thousands of other evacuees simply dropped out of the labor force, not even seeking a job, which is necessary to be listed as unemployed.
The November surge in hiring was widespread, covering nearly two-thirds of the nation's industries, the best showing since May of last year. It came after two months in which only 61,000 new jobs were created, because of the hurricanes, and it dispelled concerns that hiring would continue to lag despite robust economic growth.
The White House reacted quickly. "The economy is in good shape," President Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance shortly after the bureau released the November numbers. He declared that the future of the economy is "as bright as it's been in a long time." [Page B4.]
Stock and bond prices barely moved yesterday. That was mainly because "this was one of those rare occasions when forecasters accurately anticipated the numbers," said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at the PNC Bank Corporation, including himself among the accurate forecasters.
The latest employment numbers seemed to track the overall economy. The gross domestic product grew at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the government said on Tuesday. Much of that strength was in construction and in business spending on computers and electronics, and that is where hiring was strong in November.
all of it here
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/business/03econ.html
By LOUIS UCHITELLE
Published: December 3, 2005
The nation's employers added 215,000 jobs last month, the government reported yesterday, as the economy rebounded from the devastating impact of Hurricane Katrina.
Michael Nagle for the New York Times
Checking out the job classified ads at a resource center in Manhattan. The economy added 215,000 jobs in November, the most since July.
The strong November number, the biggest monthly increase since July, suggested that employers are scrambling for workers in response to a strongly growing economy. But on the fourth anniversary of the recovery from the 2001 recession, job growth is still below the levels achieved in previous recoveries, and the unemployment rate has been stuck at 5 percent nearly every month since June.
"We're back on track after the ill effects of the hurricanes," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com, referring to Wilma, which hit southern Florida in late October, as well as Katrina in late August. "But it is also fair to conclude that global competition and corporate layoffs are weighing on job growth."
In releasing the employment data for November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that at least 900,000 people age 16 or older - one-third of them black - evacuated in August because of Hurricane Katrina and that half had returned by last month. Most apparently came back to jobs.
The unemployment rate among the returnees was 12.5 percent, while 27.8 percent of those still living elsewhere were unemployed. Hundreds of thousands of other evacuees simply dropped out of the labor force, not even seeking a job, which is necessary to be listed as unemployed.
The November surge in hiring was widespread, covering nearly two-thirds of the nation's industries, the best showing since May of last year. It came after two months in which only 61,000 new jobs were created, because of the hurricanes, and it dispelled concerns that hiring would continue to lag despite robust economic growth.
The White House reacted quickly. "The economy is in good shape," President Bush said in a Rose Garden appearance shortly after the bureau released the November numbers. He declared that the future of the economy is "as bright as it's been in a long time." [Page B4.]
Stock and bond prices barely moved yesterday. That was mainly because "this was one of those rare occasions when forecasters accurately anticipated the numbers," said Stuart G. Hoffman, chief economist at the PNC Bank Corporation, including himself among the accurate forecasters.
The latest employment numbers seemed to track the overall economy. The gross domestic product grew at a 4.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the government said on Tuesday. Much of that strength was in construction and in business spending on computers and electronics, and that is where hiring was strong in November.
all of it here
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/business/03econ.html
