Jobs Report

The American economy kept creating jobs at a brisk pace in February, providing strong evidence that the labor market is firming up despite higher gas prices and an unsettled global economy. The Labor Department said Friday that employers across the country added 227,000 net new jobs last month, slightly more than what most economists were expecting. Hiring in healthcare and manufacturing was particularly robust. It was the third straight month of job gains in excess of 220,000.

Shaquille O'Neal, a four-time member of NBA championship teams, may be adding another job to his basketball resume. O'Neal will meet with Orlando Magic officials next week to talk about becoming the team's new general manager, according to ESPN. It's a long shot considering that O'Neal has no front-office experience. But hey, the man is an honorary U.S. marshal who received a doctorate earlier this month from Barry University. He's definitely driven. O'Neal spent four seasons in Orlando after the Magic selected him with the top overall pick in 1992.

WASHINGTON - The nation's long, hard ride to recovery went off track in the spring: Job growth slowed for the second straight month, raising fresh fears about the underlying strength of the economy. In a disappointing development for President Obama's reelection campaign, employers added a modest 115,000 jobs in April, barely enough to keep up with the natural growth of the workforce. The unemployment rate inched down to 8.1% - not because more people got jobs but because more discouraged workers dropped out of the labor market.

WASHINGTON - The nation's long, hard ride to recovery went off track in the spring: Job growth slowed for the second straight month, raising fresh fears about the underlying strength of the economy. In a disappointing development for President Obama's reelection campaign, employers added a modest 115,000 jobs in April, barely enough to keep up with the natural growth of the workforce. The unemployment rate inched down to 8.1% - not because more people got jobs but because more discouraged workers dropped out of the labor market.

President Obama seized on a new jobs report as evidence that "the economy is getting stronger," as he pitched a set of manufacturing initiatives in territory key to his reelection chances. "The key now, our job now, is to keep this economic engine churning," Obama said from the floor of a jet engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Va. "We can't go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. " Obama's trip, deemed official and not campaign business, came hours after the Labor Department announced that the economy had added 227,000 jobs in February, a stronger showing than economists expected but not enough to move the 8.3% unemployment rate.

Major stock indexes tumbled more than 2.6% on Thursday, with the Dow Jones industrials falling to a six-week low, on news that employers last month cut far more jobs than expected. The data released by Labor Department, including a 26-year high in the unemployment rate, delivered the latest blow to the stock market's already waning confidence. An upbeat report on May factory orders failed to offset the weak job numbers. The Commerce Department said orders rose 1.2% in May, better than the 0.

It is hard to believe that anyone who follows politics could possibly need more evidence that Ron Paul isn't like the rest of Washington. But just in case his basic platform -- bring back the gold standard, crush the Federal Reserve system, get all of our troops back home tomorrow and end the war on drugs -- isn't enough, all you need to do is listen to him on the campaign trail when the Department of Labor releases a jobs report. Like today. The job market strengthened. Employers hired more workers than expected.

Rep. Michele Bachmann said the June jobs report proves that President Obama's policies have not worked, and that voters she's met with in her presidential campaign are "paralyzed with fear" about the economy. "It's stunningly bad news. It's bad news for the president politically, but it's even worse news for the American people," the Minnesota congresswoman said in an interview on CNBC just moments after the Labor Department announced the unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2%. "Clearly the president's policies haven't worked.

President Obama on Friday strongly defended his policies, especially the federal bailout of the auto industry, and pledged to fight to improve the economy, which still faces challenges to recover from a grueling recession that he inherited. Speaking at a Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio, the president indirectly noted the poor jobs report that was released earlier in the day. The unemployment rate rose to 9.1% in May, but even more striking, the net increase in jobs was just 54,000, a relatively lackluster number.

If President Obama wins reelection in November, Friday's jobs report may be remembered as the turning point when he shifted from slight underdog to favorite. "Where are the jobs?" has been the question at the heart of the Republican case against Obama. Mitt Romney's campaign turns on the claim that his experience in the private sector taught him how to create new jobs. Obama, by contrast, has "failed" in that endeavor, he repeatedly says. January's growth - a net of 243,000 new jobs created, the most in nine months and almost double what most economists had forecast - undermines that argument, both Democratic and Republican strategists agreed.

WASHINGTON - After three straight weeks of elevated readings, first-time jobless claims fell by a much bigger-than-expected 27,000 last week to 365,000, the Labor Department said. The drop was the largest in nearly a year and brought the weekly count of initial filings for jobless benefits down to levels seen in March. The report eased concerns ahead of Friday's important monthly jobs report for April. The filings for jobless benefits, released Thursday, give an indication of layoff trends.

WASHINGTON -- More so than in any recent election, the monthly jobs report seems as important as any new poll in setting the presidential campaign narrative. Look no further than the furious effort on the part of the White House and Mitt Romney's campaign to spin Friday's disappointing data, which showed that while the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1%, the pace of job creation slowed for the third straight month.   For Romney, the timing is particularly auspicious. President Obama is set to hold his first public campaign rallies on Saturday in Ohio and Virginia, something of a kickoff for a reelection effort that in reality has been well underway for more than a year.

WASHINGTON - On the first Friday of every month, at precisely 8:30 a.m., the Bureau of Labor Statistics flicks a switch and the latest clue about the U.S. economy - the jobs report - gets transmitted all over the world. And then the frenzy begins. Politicians in Washington race for the mikes to proclaim that the economy is back, or maybe falling into an abyss. Investors from Brussels to Bangkok win and lose billions. And in American factories, offices and living rooms, you can almost hear a collective groan of dismay or sigh of relief.

California employers added 18,200 jobs in March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a sign that the state's gradual recovery continues. It's the eighth straight month of positive job growth and the strongest showing so far this year. In February, the state added 4,000 jobs.  California's unemployment rate in March increased to 11%, up from 10.9% in February. Economists have said that California's unemployment rate has remained elevated in recent months because more job seekers are returning to the labor force, encouraged by improving job prospects.  The state's labor market experienced gains across a variety of sectors, including professional and business services, education and health services, and leisure and hospitality.

The stock market is fluctuating between positive and negative territory today in the face of mixed economic signals that raise the specter of ebbing U.S growth. The Dow Jones industrial average is keeping a fragile hold on 13,000, declining 27.48 points, or 0.2%, to 13,005.27. The Standard & Poor's 500 is down 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite index is down fractionally. Stocks have been hurt by discouraging reports on the job and housing markets, and by more worrisome news on the European debt crisis.

SATURDAY The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer GOP race: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.); world affairs: Former British prime minister Tony Blair. 3 p.m. CNN The Chris Matthews Show How former presidents help the current president; possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidential bid in 2016. (N) 5 p.m. KNBC McLaughlin Group (N) 6:30 p.m. KCET SUNDAY Today Beluga whales; Today's life illustrated. (N) 6 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 6 a.m. KABC State of the Union With Candy Crowley GOP unity, 2012 politics: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus; the Trayvon Martin case, civility, the 2012 campaign: Bill Cosby.

With the economy the most important issue in the presidential campaign, it was no surprise that President Obama's Republican opponents tried to take some of the shine off Friday's surprisingly bright jobs report.  The Labor Department report said that the economy added 243,000 jobs in January, the most in nine months, and that the unemployment rate dropped to a three-year low of 8.3%. But former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, fresh from his big win Saturday in the Nevada caucuses, told a throng of supporters that the jobless rate has now been above Obama's own "red line of 8%" for 36 months.

President Obama seized on a new jobs report as evidence that "the economy is getting stronger" as he pitched a set of manufacturing initiatives in territory key to his reelection chances. "The key now, our job now, is to keep this economic engine churning," Obama said from the floor of a jet engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Va. "We can't go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. " Obama's trip, deemed official and not campaign business, came hours after the Labor Department announced that the economy had added 227,000 jobs in February, a stronger showing than economists had expected but not enough to move the 8.3% unemployment rate.

Criminal background checks conducted on prospective employees routinely contain errors, mismatch people or misclassify criminal offenses, according to a report by the National Consumer Law Center. The report, released Wednesday, said that since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, employers increasingly have conducted background checks on prospective hires. That has created a booming industry of Internet companies that cull public information databases for employers. But the information produced by some of those firms is often riddled with errors.