Anemic Job Growth Continues

Job growth continues to sputter—this morning’s jobs report shows that 12.1 million Americans are still out of work.

Going against other economic indicators, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8 percent. Economists are already looking into the drop, saying it seems to be a statistical fluke, because it doesn’t match up with the sluggish job creation and recent downward revision of GDP growth. Heritage’s J.D. Foster says:

One time out of a hundred, the true figure will be much different than the reported figure. One time out of a hundred for a monthly survey means about once every eight years. What seems to have occurred with the September household survey is the one time in a hundred. The last time the household survey showed such a huge jump in employment was in 1983 during the Reagan-era economic boom. Today’s economy does not look much like the Reagan boom.

The real story, then, from the more reliable employment survey is the economy created a paltry 114,000 jobs, leaving 12.1 million out in the cold. This story is getting old. And the economy has no good news to look forward to.

Congress has gone home until after the election. When it returns to Washington, the end of 2012 will be staring us in the face. In just a few short months, the largest tax increase in history will hit America. It sounds like hyperbole, and we only wish that were the case. It’s been dubbed Taxmageddon, because for millions of workers it will be an end-of-working pink slip scenario. But on January 1, a nearly $500 billion tax increase will slam the economy.

Not only will this mean individual tax increases—if you’re a middle-class family, your taxes will go up around $4,100—but the whole economy will also suffer. The Congressional Budget Office has said that unless Congress and the President act, we will be plunged into a new recession extending through 2013—when we haven’t even recovered from the previous one.

Read More at heritage.org. By Amy Payne.