The September unemployment rate held steady for the 3RD straight month at 9.1%. The only gainers were: a) Professional and Business Services up 48,000 b) Health Care, which continues to add jobs, up 44,000 c) Construction up 26,000 and d) IT which added 34,000 (Caveat: most were due to the 45,000 telecommunications workers returning to work after their strike). A troubling statistic is 700,000 workers. That’s the combined increase in the total number of workers over the last two months who are either unemployed, involuntarily working part-time or not even counted by the BLS numbers because they have just given up looking for work!
Unfortunately, the Obama administration’s focus on government spending, taxes, regulation and selection of industries (e.g. the Solyndra debacle) are all the antithesis of jobs creation. Historically, free markets, guided by Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand, have provided entrepreneurs with incentives to create jobs. Look no further than the passing of Jobs (Steve) for real jobs creation! Born the same year another visionary died (Albert Einstein), Steve Jobs rose, fell (in 1985 when ousted by the Apple Board and replaced by John Scully) and rose again, like the Phoenix, to create tons of high paying jobs by gambling on the iPod, iPhone and iPad when pundits predicted failure! This catapulted Apple to the 2nd largest U.S. market capitalization company behind ExxonMobil. Jobs was the blueprint for jobs: stardom for entrepreneurs with successful gambles (and failure for unsuccessful bets). Not Big Brother meddling!
