Obama's lousy new normal: Job growth disappoints yet again

One of the biggest wastes of time imaginable is to read news stories about what's expected in upcoming economic reports. Late last week, we were regaled with stories about how economists were expecting news of robust job growth, and how this would be followed by serious consideration on the part of the Federal Reserve Board to finally raise interest rates--which have been kept artificially low for years in the hope of spurring job growth. But as is so often the case, the reality didn't meet the expectations. Job growth stumbled again, with only 142,000 nonfarm jobs added to payrolls in September. And that follows an August that was even worse, at just 136,000. We're not even adding enough jobs to keep up with the growth in population, which means that glorious 5.1 percent unemployment rate you keep hearing about is only because so many people are leaving the workforce and no longer being counted.

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