“What shutdown? Job growth strong in October”

Natalie Waits

P.5 Economics

“What shutdown? Job growth strong in October”

Annalyn Kurtz

November 8, 2013

“What shutdown? Job growth strong in October”

                We all know that the government had about a two week shutdown, jobs were lost and the economy was “stabilized”, but even though the government had closed its doors for 16 days, the job growth in October surged.  The U.S. economy added 204,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was well above economists' expectations.  Economists assumed weak job growth due to uncertainties created by the budget battles in Washington. 

                The federal government shut down on Oct. 1, after Congress failed to agree on a budget for fiscal 2014.  This left about 800,000 people jobless.  Wall Street began to talk again about when the Federal Reserve should start slowing its stimulus program after they had realized how strong the numbers were.  The Fed has been buying $85 billion in bonds each month since September 2012, in an effort to strengthen the job market. The Fed will next meet at the end of December, and the strong jobs report could mean officials will consider reducing their monthly bond purchases sooner rather than later.

                Overall, the economy has still not recovered all of the jobs lost in the Great Recession.  About 448,000 out of work federal workers were counted as being on temporary absence, and the next jobs report, due on December 6, will probably show that these people were back in work during the month of November.  Meanwhile, only 62.8% of Americans over age 16 either had a job or looked for one, the lowest it has been since March of 1978.  Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute, estimates roughly six million workers are missing from the labor force, and if these workers started looking for work again, the unemployment rate would be closer to 11%, instead of 7.35 as it is right now. 

                But now I bet you are asking yourself, “Where did all those jobs come from?” Retailers added 44,000 jobs, professional and business services also added 44,000 jobs, restaurants and bars hired 29,000 workers and manufacturers added 12,000 jobs.  Looking at these numbers, do you think the government shut down did any good for our nation? If things didn’t change and in some cases the job numbers surged, what does this show? It shows that our nation can function through the bad, good and governmentless.