A City Here, A City There

Pretty soon you're talking real employment. The AP after actually saying a few positive things about the economy last month (which, frankly stunned us) is back to it's usual reporting.

WASHINGTON – Employers boosted payrolls by a tepid 121,000 in June — an improvement from the previous month but new evidence that companies are reluctant to bulk up their work forces in the face of high energy prices and slowing economic growth. Wages rose sharply.

….

"When you only have 121,000 jobs being added that sounds pretty puny," said Ken Mayland, economist at ClearView Economics. "On the face of it, this is somewhat disappointing." The job picture, he said, is consistent with other barometers that suggest economic growth is slowing.

Ah, yes. Puny indeed. And tepid, don't forget tepid.

For comparison purposes(2000 census data), Hartford, Connecticut has a population of 121,578. Evansville, Indiana has a tepid 121,582. Concord, California has a puny 121,780. The economy added the equivalent of a fair-sized city in new jobs in one month.

There are a lot of countries that would kill for those puny results.

UPDATE: CNN Money reports along with the claim that:

But economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a gain of 160,000 jobs, and this marked the third time in a row that payroll gains fell far short of forecasts.

Even with the upward revision in May payroll, the last three months have seen an average of only 108,000 a month added to payrolls, a number seen as less than what is needed to keep pace with population growth. That 3-month gain is down by more than a third from that measure as recently as March.

Which then leads one to ask a simple question: Why, then, are we allowing uncontrolled illegal immigration to put further downward pressure on wages and increased demand for jobs?