Hiring Up (or not) and Unemployment Down (sort of)

This one page article says it all:

'U.S. nonfarm payrolls expanded by a seasonally adjusted 431,000 in May, but virtually all the new jobs were temporary jobs at the U.S. Census, leaving private-sector hiring very weak in May, the Labor Department reported Friday. ... The unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 9.7% in May from 9.9% in April, according to a separate survey of 60,000 households. The decline wasn't particularly good news, however, because the drop was due to 322,000 people dropping out of the labor force.'

With fears of a double-dip recession continuing, and remaining volatility in the housing and stock markets, claims of steady economic recovery seem premature at best.

NPR calls it: The stock market reacts negatively

Right after Sec. Treas. (I can't pay my own taxes) Geithner announced plans to use up to $2 trillion in NEW money to prop up failing banks, bank stocks led the way in a massive drop. A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon we'll be talking real money, along with generations of debt. NPR noted that the market drop is in large part due to the total lack of specificity (or limits) in the plan. No kidding!

Meanwhile, our erstwhile President seems content to blame President Bush and the GOP, despite the massive Congressional spending under a Democratic Congress (of which he was a part).