Job growth stalls, fuels recession fears

“Sagging consumer confidence probably discouraged already skittish U.S. businesses from stepping up hiring in August, keeping pressure on the Federal Reserve to provide more monetary stimulus to aid the economy.”

How exactly is printing money and buying treasuries, keeping interest rates low, and preventing people from saving and investing their money wisely, good for the economy?

We need a long term plan. Save money, reduce government spending — particularly on the military… Save money, raise interest rates, put money back into local communities and strengthen the whole country, not just a few areas with pork project wasteful spending.

This is a joke, come on reuters, do some real reporting not propaganda

I think, a first step would be to change the tax code: start taxing the stinking rich with a decent tax rate, close loop-holes for the tax evading mega-multinationals, and take that money and give it to small local businesses.
As for consumption, only the masses can get an economy out of the doldrums, and in the employment market it is small local businesses that don’t outsource to China, who create jobs, if they are encouraged to do so.

Just force these “job creators” to spend their money towards “creating jobs”… “in America”… not elsewhere.

When Americans stop spending hundreds of dollars each time they go to a professional sporting event where players earn millions of dollars each season, then . . . .
And when American corporations who have hidden more than a Trillion Dollars in offshore accounts in order to avoid paying taxes, and refuse to spend it creating jobs and business in the USA, then . . .
And when CEOs and insurance and investment brokers stop getting multi-million dollar bonuses, then . . .
And when America stops spending billions monthly in useless foreign wars, THEN I will start to feel sorry for the USA economy and its impact on people.
Until then, forget it.

Who is responsible for the lack of jobs? The answer will surprise you. It is the American people themselves. Stop buying imports and start buying American. Support American jobs before it is too late.

Because cheap stuff is better than jobs….

Thanks Free trade couldn’t have gotten here without you!

Crashing the economy is the plan. How else is George Soros going to usher in the New World Order? The only thing stopping him is the U.S. economy and the dollar.

Several notes: First time unemployment around 400,000 each week! That’s 1,600,000 per month
One of the reasons there is constant spending (ONE of the reasons) is that older people are spending their Social Security benefits. Anybody realize what a cut in benefits OR older age requirements will do to the economy? Duh!

Is it possible to give more exact numbers, or are those just the vague rounded ones provided by the government?

“Private payrolls increased only 17,000 after rising 156,000 in July. Government employment fell 17,000, contracting for a 10th straight month.”

I mean really, that just makes it sound like the government ‘cut’ 17,000 workers and then re-hired them as private contractors -_-

LOL@Silkster, yea it is a huge conspiracy to destroy the world economy and one guy can establish a new world order, that makes TOTAL sense! You righties sure are a paranoid bunch.

What actually makes sense is, as many economists predicted, we are seeing the effects of government support for the economy wearing off. As these economists have warned, the original Recovery Act was too small, and due to GOP blind adherence to an ideology and unwillingness to compromise, we are cutting back on government support too soon. All in the name of making Obama a one term president at all costs, forget actually governing right?

@Rhino1, you hit on a very important point, “As for consumption, only the masses can get an economy out of the doldrums, and in the employment market it is small local businesses that don’t outsource to China, who create jobs, if they are encouraged to do so.” Exactly, this is why we need corporate tax reform, as these small businesses (like the 100 employee manufacture company I work for) can not take advantage of all the special interest loopholes that benefit the huge multi-nationals, and thus are more subject to the 35% corporate tax rate. Get rid of the loop holes and lower rates for companies with less then, say 1000 employees. We would bring in more revenue and help the actual job creators.

It must be all that “laser focus” is scaring the jobs away…

There is low probability that QE3 will lower unemployment. Even if QE3 encourages banks to lend money to businesses to hire people, businesses are not gluttons and do not automatically borrow money.

Whether or not banks want to lend, businesses will perceive that their costs will increase and be more volatile because of quantitative easing and won’t borrow money to hire people as doing so would be unprofitable.

Perhaps the doves at the Fed, many who have committed their academic careers to macroeconomic theory and have done amazing work in that field, forgot basic microeconomics.

We need a massive Keynesian investment program from the administration.

David Brown
Infinity Capital Management

WHO is actually believing this stuff??
The economy fixes are working fine. the big businesses (too big to fail) are doing okay, making profit.
The stock market is nearly where it was when it all got dumped, some years ago.
Investors are buying and selling and taking profits on everything from corn to oil to paper.
The idea that wealth provides jobs has always been a fallacy. re proven to be wrong time and time again.
How many compnay buyouts/takeovers are going on with all the extra cash companies now have??
I see layoffs in the future. Just as would any other savvy observer.
Forget the ignorant.
Let them eat cake!

Does anyone teach basic economics to any of these Wall Street criminals.With wages flat, high unemployment and tight credit what reasonable person would expect to see growth in a consumer oriented economy. We are experiencing the culmination of thirty plus years of “trickle down” economics. The only thing that trickled down to the average American was cheap abundant credit and now that has disappeared. So thank you GOP for gutting unions, transferring vast sums of wealth to the already wealthy, deregulating banks and industry, cutting taxes for the wealthy, creating a sea of tax loopholes for multi-national corporations and shipping American jobs overseas. And to think that you were aided and abetted by two Democratic Presidents Clinton and Obama with NAFTA, WTO, the elimination of Glass Steagall and extension of Bush tax cuts.

We need a new third party to overhaul the US government and our economic model and not try and take us backwards like the tea party seems hell bent on doing.

Hopeless change.

David Brown, as you know Milton Friedman has dominated economic thinking in recent years and Keynes was demonized. I agree with your position but the GOP/TP is hell bent on bringing the average American to his/her knees to compete the cycle initiated by Reagan. As we all know by watching what happens in much of the world, the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few is much easier and more manageable in a banana republic.

Economic recovery starts in 2012, when Obama is voted out of office…

Though it will take until later of 2013 for new policies to start taking effect, the effect on business psychology will be immediate. For one, guitar makers will breath easier (google DOJ crackdown on Gibson).

The last thing this country needs is more Bernanke policy. Time to let it ride to its inevitable conclusion… one way or the other.

This natural economic slow-down shouldn’t be of much surprise as the unregulated free-trade empties jobs, consumer turns from wants to needs for sometime and even starts saving, till some change comes in the form of self-correction.

No stimulus of any sort will fix this issue short of changing the underlying infrastructure and loopholes that guarantee continuation of this.

When you see mass emigration,you will know that we are really bankrupt.Not there yet,but it’s coming.

Worshiping the false idol of big govt hasn’t worked,but Americans keep trying.

Huge govt,with unlimited power to mess things up,controlled by incompetent American voters.This can’t work.Either we need better voters or smaller govt.I don’t have much faith in producing better voters so I think smaller govt is the answer,but most disagree with me.

@DaveMinnich… I don’t know what policy changes you could possibly be dreaming of. If Obama does get voted out of office, he would be replaced by a Republican. In case you’ve been living in a cave, Republicans favor policies that benefit Big Business and the wealthy. (Remeber the debt ceiling debacle? Republicans flatly refused to consider raising taxes on the rich or closing loopholes.)

Obama’s ‘jobs plan’ is fodder for the ignorant. Borrowing another trillion or so from China to create temopary jobs (when the money runs out the jobs disappear) is ridiculous. The ONLY way for the economy to recover and create jobs is to bring back the millions of manufacturing jobs Corporate America has sent out of the country.

Unfortunately, Corporate America isn’t going to do it on their own. Corporate Executives are raking in millions each year. They could care less about anything other than their piles of money. The Government isn’t going to do anything to force them to bring back jobs because they’re bought and paid for by lobbyists toting the corporate check book. The only way to get it done is WE force them to do it.

Join & promote AmericanBoycott.com

Corporate profits are at way up. Top executive payrolls continue to increase. Rich individual and corporate taxes are way down. Regular employees take fewer sick days and shorter vacations in fear of the negative impact they might have on their job longevity. Employers continue to have lay-off rounds as they try and find the perfect number of nervous, overworked staff to maximize their own profits. The fear of recession has little to do with corporate Americas response in the job growth arena. Corporate America is continuing to get richer, the rich are continuing to get richer – they don’t care.

Rhino1, you understand the ‘stinking rich’ pay most of the taxes right? according to the IRS, the top 10% earners pay 2/3rds of the income taxes.

The Republican’s strategy to spike the economy to assure Obama’s defeat is going extremely well. No job? Lost your home? Retirement in the toilet? Just vote the Republicans into power and all will be well. The sun will shine on us once again and the USA will be number one. No problem. Thanks Uncle Mitch!

@BCeretano

My point was that merely stopping what Obama is doing is enough to start a recovery, even if your take on the GOP is correct.

Reuters is playing”Merry-Go-Round” with it’s lead stories. One day there is not recession and recovery and the next day there is fear of recession. Come on Reuters, take a long view, one that is more than 1 or 2 days.

If our labor force expanded and we created no new jobs, how did the unemployment rate stay the same? That is not possible. With “reports” like this is it any wonder that many seem surprised that our economy is going no where?
For those who wonder why corporations have $trillions on hand but aren’t spending it,…they got that money from the Bernak and his QE’s and ZIRP policies. Why aren’t the banks loaning out money? Most people that I know have enough debt, and they are actually expected to pay that debt BACK at some point.And that fact doesn’t seem to soak into those at the Fed who can just print whenever they “need” more money. The Fed is finding out that you can’t push on a string.

Barring an actual tragedy, Obama will be re-elected in 2012. All you wing nuts go back to dreaming otherwise.

Most of us – a vast super-majority – know what the answers are. None of us are going to see those answers enacted here in the US because we have the Repugs actively pushing against our interests in order to benefit the very few, and the spineless Democraps slyly doing the same thing, with a bone tossed to the ‘poor’ or unemployed.

If a third party is begun, its leader will suffer the same fate as Obama if elected – because the same know-nothing Congress will see that the people’s agenda is subverted, because this time there will be both the D flavor and the R flavor working to see that we, the people, lose again. Perhaps know-nothing is too harsh… they certainly know well enough how to steal the treasury of the United States.

Jobs are not “coming” back to the US. We have to establish new ones, new enterprises. Are we still riding horses and buggies? Do we still communicate by telegraph? Government support of entrepreneurs will help, along with tax changes, military reductions, etc. But to wait for those to happen, I would only suggest holding your breath to my worst enemy.

BCerantano–Keep drinking the Democrat Kool aid. It is their policies of the “Great Society” and war on poverty that has created a generation that is enslaved to big government. Democrats try to buy the poor peoples votes with their so called social justice programs. All they do is create a lower class that is dependent on the taxes of others. We have to stop rewarding people for having more babies that they can’t afford to raise. We need to encourage personal responsibility for a change. I agree that something has to be done to stop the outsourcing of jobs to other countries.

moonhill wrote: ‘…something has to be done to stop the outsourcing of jobs to other countries…’

stop demanding a better price and companies will stop outsourcing.

Economically, lets just go with Tiebout’s hypothesis, he was a French economist that no one but me has ever heard of, because when you go to an Ivy League school, its your job to know about intellectuals no one else has ever heard of. (smile).
Anyway, he stood for the proposition that people vote with their feet.
Make a bad product they run away, make a good product they run to. With regards to utilities, the same applies. At the risk of boring you all I will refrain.
Point being, Reuters, please understand that the numbers the govt. gives us re unemployment are rigged. The unemployment rate actually is much higher. Why is this important? Because it would show that we are much further in the hole than is shown. The “carved up” numbers our so called economists rigged for the “sheep” in America seems to work for the sheep. Please Reuters, have your analysts get back to the truth. Its all we ask as readers. Stop with accepting what the numbers tell us, when most of us on here know its complete BS! If I were to guess where our REAL employment rate was, I would say 11 to 13 percent.
Just because govt changes the rules of the game, doesn’t mean that Reuters should sheepishly go along. Tell us Reuters what is the REAL unemployment rate in the US? (Hint, NEVER assume your readers can read at an 8th grade level).
Politically, I hate the Dems and the GOP because they both serve one master. The banksters.

I will vote reluctantly for Ron Paul. Yes he is a republican but a small “r”. He is actually a Libertarian with the most consistent voting record in Congress! Pretty amazing but true. I just finished my due diligence on him. The guy is as straight as they come and while I am a progressive, this guys speaks truth to power. You want us out of the wars within 60 days after he is elected? Vote for this guy. You want us to take on the corporatists that control America, this man is who I trust. Sure he ain’t perfect, and there is a lot of stuff I disagree with him on, but I just don’t trust ANYONE out there on the Dems side or GOP(including “slick Rick” Perry).

Remember my words: History has positioned this person to take America back from the brink. Only once in a lifetime do you see this opportunity. And I think that he will win and become the Republican nominee and hopefully beat Obama. Its a no brainer to vote for Ron Paul.

Those “job creators” are doing a heck-of-a-job. So glad they got to keep their tax money.

Sounds like a old 60′s song in here. Tax the rich, feed the poor, till the rich are, rich no more.

So who’s next in line to pay the tab when the rich are gone? That’s right, the middle class tax payers are next…. and good luck stopping that entitlement train when poor are even more desperate than ever before. There will be riots, there will be blood. Keep stoking the flames of resentment and class warfare, and before you know it, the streets will burn!

@ the Gaul said:

“Barring an actual tragedy, Obama will be re-elected in 2012.”

The Obama presidency IS the actual tragedy, and Obama is toast in 2012. The only dreamers here are the O-Bots who still think hope and change is in the air with their Obamessiah.

- Tax outsourcing
- Lower corporate tax rate for small business
- Impose import tariffs on unfairly subsidized manufactured goods.

Is that simple? Do it quick!

Jambrytay-I do try to buy products made in the USA even if they are more expensive. Sometimes it is impossible to do. I am making a point of avoiding anything made in China. Those of us who have jobs should try to help our fellow Americans by buying products made in the USA!

So China sells us toy airplanes and we sell them 777′s. I know which side of the trade I’d rather be on.

@moonhill – It is not just a patriotic thing to buy MADE IN USA, because the consumers en mass will simply not do it, they will go for the cheapest more reputable product.

If u cannot find the same product made here, it means the manufacturing ability for such a product has been killed by foreign competition, and there r no competitive advantages to manufacture it here in the US.

The main point is to make our manufacturing competitive again in this new millennium. It takes some time to reverse but is the only way.

A simple approach could be as I already outlined:
- Tax outsourcing
- Lower corporate tax rate for small business
- Impose import tariffs on unfairly subsidized manufactured goods.

We choose the rental car agency that offers us the lowest price, but then complain that the company has outsourced its call center to India. How do you think they were able to offer you that low price? We complain about illegal aliens, but happily buy the 2 pound tub of strawberries for $5 at the grocery store. Even in the depths of our Great Recession, no gringos showed up at the strawberry farms ready for work.

As investors, we applaud management’s cost cutting measures and the 10% jump in the stock price. Oh, by the way, management outsourced most of the company’s AP function to Poland as a part of the cost cutting initiative. We like to blame others, but our actions as consumers and investors create the very ‘problems’ we complain about.

Our actions send a very clear message to business—we want it cheaper, faster, better, preferably all of the above. Companies will stop doing all these things as soon as the consumer stops demanding better products and services, and lower prices. One problem. The day that happens is the day our economy stops growing. In a mature economy like ours (one with little to no population growth) productivity gains are about the only way for the economy to grow. Economic growth gives us higher pay, a better standard of living, etc, etc. Bottom line, consumers and investors are generally pushing business to do the right things.

American citizens lost $6 trillion in wealth the last decade due to the housing bubble. They are deleveraging and fixing their personal balance sheets. They are not spending on what businesses make. Therefore; businesses are not growing (hiring). Instead of bailing the crooks out, the governemnt should have bailed out the citizenry. Just shows you who really runs things. Remembre: Its not a democracy anymore. Its and auction.

A start to help this country – next time you need clothes follow this link

http://www.allamericanclothing.com/SFNT.html?utm_source=constantcontact&utm_medium=email

This is not an advertisement, just a suggestion for those concerned about outsourcing. In fact, with a little webwork, you can find many sources for American-produced items. I myself now buy local, used, and/or made in USA for nearly everything; not bragging, just pointing out that it can be done.

“Job growth stalls, fuels recession fears” LOL we’ve been in recession so what’s the fear? Oh yeah the crooks needs to loot more from our kids through “stimulus”. Why would any one buy into it again? How much weight does “too big to fail” carry now?

Anyone who owns a “small business” (or most of one) and who makes $1,000,000. per year is no “small” businessman. And the do not generate many jobs either. Just campaign contributions.

The little guys with four employees and $250,000. sales are where the stimulus needs to be, not on people who own five car dealerships. Come on people, stop deceiving the public about who benefits from these Government plans for “small” business. Small businesses like J.P. Morgan and Ford.

Just remember who started the dive. The housing market and the banks who had these exotic CDOs. The exotic instruments were a gambler’s delight and didn’t make anything of value except for the gamblers, especially the banks and hedge funds. Just remember that.

@txgadfly – That’s exactly right, a small business that needs most help is the one with up to 50 employees that is hardly breaking even right now.

We should differentiate help for “manufacturing” small business, so the rich “car dealerships” would not benefit from it.

Isn’t the reason behind the bad employment numbers due to the fact the country (tea baggers and the dems fighting like cats and dogs ) and the country was being on the verge of bankruptcy? The media was having a feeding frenzy. Shouldn’t the reporter include this important fact in her article??

Don’t worry wait for Sept months numbers come out the recession fears will abate…you will see

Let’s face facts…nothing is going to change until Obama and the Democrat Senate Majority are gone. Then and only then can reality based Conservative “free enterprise” economic policies have a chance to succeed. Take the Ivy League Professors out of Washington and put some experienced business people in who have at least created jobs. We’ve given Keynesian economics two and half plus years and it has been a total failure.

I have read all the comments posted as response to this article. A common undercurrent that i have noticed is to blame either thr Rs or the Ds or the Bs (Businesshouses). Remember one thing, when u point a finger at someone, ur 3 fingers r pointing back at u!!!
One of those 3 fingers is accusing u of electing the reigning Govt. Finally u r one of the people who elected the Govt in a Democracy. The 2nd finger blames u for being unwise in borrowing, investing and spending. Borrowing for buying BIG houses, so big that even half of which you do not need, practically thinking; Investing in schemes that you never studied urself nor understood fully, rather u invested ‘coz ur friend had invested and claimed to have earned rich returns…the end result? u see ur investments losing value by the day……coz they were not worth that much in the first place!
The third finger pointing at u blames u for spending thoughtlessly, even if it means borrowing more money to spend. Basic rule of economics tells that borrowing for productive purposes results in cutting down the borrowing over time……whereas borrowing for meeting consumption expenditure…..like exotic food, rich clothing, costly tours, etc. will mean that the borrowed amount will not get repaid unless u borrow more.
Now, my dear Americans, pls look into the past of urself as an individual and after introspection, tell me……have u not done either of the above some point of time or other? So why blame the Govt if it is doing the same, albeit on a much larger scale?
To close my submission, let me point out : IN A DEMOCRACY, PEOPLE GET THE GOVERNMENT THAT THEY DESERVE, AND THE GOVT IS, AFTER ALL, A REFLECTION OF THE PEOPLE.

There should be more emphasis on stimulating small business. An elderly guy here, suffering from the recession, started giving people rides for free in his car. He was making ends meet with tips from passengers until he got arrested for giving free rides. Couldn’t believe it! Sterling Greenwood/Aspen

With job statistics like this, there seems no doubt that the U.S. economy is in the midst of a structural, rather than cyclical change, and the only thing that is likely to boost employment is the creation of new industries, rather than growth in existing industries.

When will Congress realize this, and fund education to the extent that new innovations, industries and efficiencies are likely to result?