IT’S BEEN “SWOONING” ALL ALONG. THEY JUST KEEP PROPPING IT UP. IT’S THE WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S ECONOMY: Obama economy swoons again.
In an ominous sign for the U.S. economy, one of the few bright spots in early 2015 was revised away in Friday’s jobs report.
Now, signs point to a risk of commerce slowing and growth stagnating throughout the year, a year that President Obama and others hoped would be the long-awaited breakout for the still-damaged U.S. economy.
The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. added only 126,000 jobs in March, the fewest in 15 months. Even worse, it marked down its estimates for the past two months, meaning that job gains averaged less than 200,000 for the first three months of the year — well below the relatively strong 260,000 rate for 2014 and close to the average for 2013.
Friday’s report brought the jobs numbers into alignment with a number of other disappointing or outright negative economic data points from recent weeks, including falling retail sales, slowing manufacturing activity and weak industrial production.
“Bad luck.”