{"64196":{"#nid":"64196","#data":{"type":"news","title":"January Jobs Report with Dr. Thomas Boston","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Disappointing.\u0022 That\u0027s how economists describe the January jobs report out today. The economy added just 36,000 jobs, and that\u0027s a lot fewer than expected. But the unemployment rate fell to 9 percent. That\u0027s down from 9.4 percent the month before. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGeorgia Tech economics professor Thomas \u0022Danny\u0022 Boston, he\u0027s here to help us break down these numbers. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAnd I guess the big question is, you know, the unemployment rate, it went down by a lot, but the job numbers really -- very disappointing. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EPROF. THOMAS \u0022DANNY\u0022 BOSTON, GEORGIA TECH: Right. They didn\u0027t go up as much as expected. But there is an explanation for this seeming paradox. All right?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBecause on the question of the jobs number, we were expecting more. But if you really sort of peel beneath the numbers and look at where the jobs -- not increasing, where they were lost -- for example, transportation and warehousing, temporary help services and construction -- had we experienced the increase in jobs in January that we had in December, then we would have been up to 150,000 and perhaps even higher. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMALVEAUX: So when somebody takes a look at these numbers, should they be optimistic about the state of the economy? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBOSTON: I think should. Now, you have to be tempered. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMALVEAUX: You\u0027re cautious, I think. Cautiously optimistic. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBOSTON: Right, right. Because there are some things that are troubling about the number. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMALVEAUX: For instance? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBOSTON: For instance, the fact that the unemployment rate decreased from 9.4 percent to 9 percent, that occurred because a half million people dropped out of the labor market. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMALVEAUX: Oh, I see.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBOSTON: That\u0027s not a good sign. We would actually prefer to see the unemployment number increase and people coming into the labor market as a result.\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nMALVEAUX: Really?\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nBOSTON: Yes, because when you drop out of the labor market, the people who would have stayed in that dropped out are likely to be classified as unemployed. So that\u0027s why the number went down. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAnd when the economy is growing, at least for a temporary period, the unemployment rate actually increases because people are coming back in. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EMALVEAUX: So if we take a look at this, and people are kind of frustrated, they\u0027re getting impatient right now. How long is it going to take us before we get to that point, I guess it\u0027s a healthy unemployment number around 5 percent? \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBOSTON: Sure, sure. It\u0027s going to take a while. If we don\u0027t do anything better than we\u0027re doing -- and we are doing actually pretty good now by historic standards, we\u0027re up about 3.2 percent -- if we just maintain that rate, it\u0027s going to take us until 2016 to get that down to 5.5 percent. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nSo we have to do something different. We really have to talk about what kind of long-term economic and innovative growth policies we can put in place to change that. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u0026nbsp;MALVEAUX: All right, Professor, thank you so much for joining us. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;BOSTON: Thank you. My pleasure. \u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"January Jobs Report with Dr. Thomas Boston"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Disappointing.\u0022 That\u0027s how economists describe the January jobs report out today. The economy added just 36,000 jobs, and that\u0027s a lot fewer than expected. But the unemployment rate fell to 9 percent. That\u0027s down from 9.4 percent the month before. Georgia Tech economics professor Thomas \u0022Danny\u0022 Boston, he\u0027s here to help us break down these numbers. And I guess the big question is, you know, the unemployment rate, it went down by a lot, but the job numbers really -- very disappointing.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Dr. Boston live on CNN with Suzanne Malveaux discusses January Jobs Report."}],"uid":"27205","created_gmt":"2011-02-11 10:50:42","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:08:10","author":"Kari White","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2011-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2011-02-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"60738":{"id":"60738","type":"image","title":"Dr. Thomas \u0022Danny\u0022 Boston","body":null,"created":"1449176296","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:58:16","changed":"1475894528","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:42:08","alt":"Dr. Thomas \u0022Danny\u0022 Boston","file":{"fid":"191202","name":"tjy30533.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tjy30533_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tjy30533_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":42429,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tjy30533_0.jpg?itok=83FyOFRe"}}},"media_ids":["60738"],"groups":[{"id":"1282","name":"School of Economics"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"290","name":"Economy"},{"id":"4012","name":"jobs"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKari White\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kari.white@econ.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ekari.white@econ.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kari.white@econ.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}