US Expected to Report 5K New Jobs

Columbus, Indiana, and Casper, Wyoming top employment list

(NEWSER) - Recession—that's a big-city thing, right? Several mid-size cities around the US are making an argument for their economic superiority, boasting job growth higher than the 1.5% national average in 2011. You may not know these cities well, but the Christian Science Monitor recommends them:

1. Columbus, Indiana: No, not Ohio's Columbus: Indiana's version had 10% growth from 2009 to 2010, making it the best economic rebounder during the Great Recession. Jobs are up 6.4%.

And fewer new jobs than expected were created

(AP) - Employers hired only 54,000 new workers in May, the fewest in eight months, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.1%. The Labor Department report offers startling evidence that the US economy is slowing, hampered by high gas prices and natural disasters in Japan that have hurt US manufacturers. The Wall Street Journal notes that 160,000 jobs were expected to be created and the unemployment rate was expected to fall to 8.9%. But more people entered the work force last month, which pushed the unemployment rate up from 9.0% in April. More»

Just 115K jobs added in April: jobs report

(NEWSER) - The unemployment rate fell to 8.1% in April, the lowest it’s been since January 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. But that still gets an "ouch" from blogger Steven Russolillo since just 115,000 jobs were added, when as many as 168,000 had been expected. "It fell below expectations and even came in under the so-called 'whisper numbers,'" which were around 125,000, he writes. More»

It's a sign of economic confidence

(NEWSER) - February saw 2 million Americans quit their jobs—the most since November of 2008. And that's a very good sign for the rest of us, the Wall Street Journal notes. Quitting points to confidence in the economy, analysts say: If people don't think they'll be hired elsewhere, they tend to stick to their jobs. More than 3 million people quit their jobs per month before the recession; the figure fell to a record low 1.6 million in September 2009. More»

But economy adds just 120K jobs

(NEWSER) - The unemployment rate dropped to 8.2% last month, but the economy only added 120,000 jobs, when 203,000 new jobs had been predicted, according to today's jobs report. Reaction on the Wall Street Journal's MarketBeat Blog was swift: "Woah!!! Bad number." The unemployment rate, however, is better news; it had been expected to hold steady at 8.3%. But the AP notes that the dip is mostly due to more Americans giving up on seeking employment. More»