"Mass. jobs cut for third straight month" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, May 17, 2013
Massachusetts employers cut jobs for the third consecutive month in April, a sign that federal spending cuts and tax increases are slowing the state’s economy and taking a toll on hiring, economists said.
Keep that in mind for later.
Employers trimmed payrolls by 1,400 jobs last month, after cutting 3,800 jobs in March and 800 in February, the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported Thursday. The state unemployment rate held steady at 6.4 percent.
?????
That means the same number of people dropped off the unemployment rolls because their benefits ran out -- or the government is lying again.
Michael Goodman, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, said across-the-board federal spending cuts that took effect in March, and a recession in Europe, the state’s biggest foreign trade partner, contributed to the slowdown.
“It’s like driving with your brake on,” Goodman said. “We’re still moving, but slowly.”
Economists at UMass have estimated that the reductions in federal spending will cost the state tens of thousands of jobs over the next several years. Massachusetts, with its concentration of universities, hospitals, technology, and defense-related firms, relies more heavily on federal spending than other states.
Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economics professor, said in addition to the across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration, a federal payroll tax increase this year left consumers with less to spend. Consumer spending is a major driver of the state and national economies.
“This wasn’t a pleasant thing to look at,” Clayton-Matthews said of the report. “I was hoping we’d see some increase in jobs, but this is consistent with expected weakness due to federal austerity.”
The Massachusetts economy has largely grown faster than the nation as a whole since the end of the last recession.
Related: Boston Globe Giving You the Business
We call it bulls***.
Massachusetts regained all the jobs lost in the downturn earlier this year, even as the national employment remains at 2.6 million jobs below the prerecession peak.
Even as jobs have been cut the last three months.
Do these guys even read the crap they put out? Or is it just about keeping their job?
The US unemployment rate, 7.5 percent in April, remains well above the state’s jobless rate.
But the recovery in Massachusetts has been uneven, concentrated in Eastern Massachusetts and sectors such as technology and health care, local economists said.
I'm sick of lame-ass qualifiers appearing more than halfway through the shit-shoveling propaganda, sorry.
Some 220,000 people in Massachusetts remained unemployed and looking for work in April.
I was never counted as unemployed, and I've given up looking after the pitiful listings in the paper. Custodial jobs, that's about it.
More than 40,000 of them have had federal emergency unemployment benefits cut as a result of US cutbacks, state labor department officials said.
Well, unemployment checks aren't the answer.
The April job losses in Massachusetts were spread across several sectors.
Oh, well, that's good.
Government lost the most jobs, according to the estimates, shedding about 2,000 positions. The leisure and hospitality sector lost 1,900 jobs over the month and the financial activities sector lost 1,400. Construction, a sector that had been growing strongly in the beginning of the year, shed 600 jobs.
The monthly job estimates are subject to frequent revision. In March, labor officials initially estimated that the state lost 5,500 jobs, but revised to losses to 3,800.
Translation: they are just pushing bulls***. It's all manipulation.
Clayton-Matthews said it wasn’t all bad news, noting that two sectors that include technology firms, continue to grow. Professional, scientific, and business services added 4,500 jobs over the month, and the information sector grew by 900 jobs.
That's good for the H1-Bs and other immigrants, I guess.
--more--"
Related:
"About 100 community, labor, and peace group activists protested the automatic federal budget cuts Thursday in Boston, saying they unfairly target programs that benefit preschoolers, the elderly, and AIDS patients, among others. They were joined by government workers facing layoffs because of the budget cuts."
Buried in the middle of an interview with the Boston Fed?
FLASHBACK:
"Mass. economy sees surprisingly strong growth" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, April 26, 2013
After a period of lackluster economic growth, the Massachusetts economy sprang to life in the first three months of this year as hiring increased, incomes rose, and consumer spending rebounded, according to a new report by the University of Massachusetts and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston....
Why am I not believing the bulls***?
The state has recovered from the last recession faster than the nation as a whole, regaining as of January all the jobs lost in the downturn even as US employment remains millions of jobs below the prerecession peak. That has helped boost incomes here, which have been further supported by the strong stock market and rising home values, leading to stronger consumer spending.
What do they call it when a lie is constantly repeated?
“What’s surprising is how quick the growth was in the beginning of the year,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, the Northeastern University economist who compiled and analyzed data in the UMass report. “We’re in the fourth year of the recovery now, and at some point that pent-up demand has to make itself felt in consumer spending. That’s what’s beginning to take place.”
Wages and incomes in Massachusetts grew at a “stunning” 19.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, Clayton-Matthews said, likely due to sizable bonuses for workers in the state’s financial companies and professional services sector, which includes law, scientific research, and technical firms.
Just the Globe giving you the business again.
Also see: Liberty Mutual, MassMutual CEOs won big pay boosts
Just the Globe giving you the bu$ine$$ again.
Consumers, meanwhile, appeared to put aside caution and open their wallets. Spending on discretionary purchases, including TVs, furniture, and appliances, as well as motor vehicles, grew robustly at an annual rate of 11.6 percent, based on an analysis of state sales taxes.
At Boch Enterprises, one of the region’s biggest auto dealers, sales are on the rise, said owner Ernie Boch Jr. Many customers, after holding back for the past few years, simply need a new car and can no longer put off a purchase, he said. Others have been lured into showrooms by new models and historically low interest rates.
“There’s lots of signs that people are out spending,” Boch said.
The Globe always talks to the same people. If it's cars it's this guy, economy the other guy. I'm just sick of hearing from the same people all the time. Sorry.
Retailers are also seeing those signs. At TJX Cos., the Framingham retailer that operates T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, sales climbed 12 percent in 2012 from the previous year. During the five weeks ending April 6, sales rose 5 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Related:
"TJX Cos. Inc., which operates off-price retailers T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, reported a jump in sales for the five weeks ended April 6 of $2.4 billion, up 5 percent over a year ago. But at stores open at least a year, sales fell 2 percent, the company said. Generally a star performer, TJX cited a shift in the timing of Easter and recent cold weather as factors in its unusual same-store sales decline. In a statement, however, TJX chief Carol Meyrowitz said “April is off to a good start.”"
Well, if lying is off to a good start (sigh).
Also see: After $21m Mass. tax break, TJX moves unit to Ohio
TJX chief executive doubles pay to $22m
Took the money and ran, did Meyrowitz?
The Massachusetts economy seems to have turned a corner after Washington legislators resolved longstanding tax and policy questions at the end of last year, local economists said.
Oh, good Lord, how many times de we hear that about the wars (sob!)?
This is about saying the economy is good so the money junkies can loot. The system is about to come apart, folks.
Bruising debates over the national debt followed by an election-year stalemate over reducing the nation’s deficit had left many employers wary of hiring or expanding in the past year, hindering an already slow recovery.
But with the election decided and some major budget battles resolved, the economy has shown signs of improvement. In January, after Congress avoided the so-called fiscal cliff of steep tax increases and deep budget cuts, Massachusetts employers added more than 16,000 jobs, the strongest pace of hiring in years.
Still, I hope that unemployment has not run out on you.
Risks to the economy remain, the UMass report warned. Massachusetts is particularly vulnerable to across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration because the state receives billions annually in federal defense and research spending.
The spending cuts, which took effect last month, have already led to slower hiring in many of the state’s key industries, including health care, higher education, and research and development.
Weak demand for Massachusetts goods in Europe, the state’s biggest foreign market, could also slow growth. State exports to Europe, which is mired in an economic crisis, fell about 30 percent in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Wisertrade.org, which tracks international trade.
The UMass report, published in the economic journal MassBenchmarks, projected the state’s economy would continue to grow in coming months, albeit not as quickly.
Michael D. Goodman, professor of public policy at UMass Dartmouth and one of the report’s authors, said it highlights the state’s overall progress since the end of the last recession, although the gains have been uneven.
Penalty stroke!
The number of people unemployed for six months or longer in Massachusetts remains troublingly high, he said. Many are older workers, displaced from jobs in still struggling sectors of the state’s economy, such as manufacturing.
But the banks are booming, corporations are booking record profits, the wealth of the elite is growing, and yet somehow it just isn't working for Americans -- and now they want to reform immigration so cheap foreign labor that won't complain can be brought in. Looks like the only thing left is military service, 'murkn.
And the western part of the state, as well as cities like Lawrence and New Bedford, continue to wrestle with persistently high unemployment.
Related: Welcome to My World
“The state is doing well,” Goodman said. “But even though we have had strong performance, there are still large regions of the state that aren’t experiencing the benefit.”
Yeah, it's only bad where I am, it's only cold where I am, etc, etc, etc.
--more--"
Had enough, folks, because I SURE HAVE!!!!!!!!
