US economy adding jobs slowly but surely

The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From the WaPo:

The unemployment rate dipped and job creation remained steady in November, as the U.S. economy shrugged off any major impact from Hurricane Sandy and showed surprising resilience in the run-up to the fiscal cliff.

The November jobs report, released Friday morning, was a pleasant surprise to analysts who had braced for some ugly numbers for a period when much of the Northeast was reeling from the superstorm. In fact, the national unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent, and the nation added 146,000 jobs, not the mere 85,000 that forecasters had expected.

The report contained some ominous elements, as well, however. The jobless rate dropped in large part because the labor force fell by 350,000, suggesting people gave up looking for work. The number of people saying they had a job actually fell by 122,000. And the Labor Department revised downward its estimates of job creation in September and October by a combined 49,000.

Add it all up, and the conclusion is this: The trend that we thought was underway — of a U.S. economy growing steadily but at an unspectacular pace — remains underway, and was not undone either by the hurricane or by anticipation of looming austerity, the tax hikes and spending cuts scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, barring a compromise deal to avert them.

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Photo of California Attorney General (and former California Governor) Jerry Brown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

California Gov. Jerry Brown called on state lawmakers to embrace austere cuts and urged voters to approve tax hikes in outlining a revised budget Monday.

Brown proposed $8.3 billion in cuts across education, health care and welfare programs in laying out a plan to address the state’s $15.7 billion shortfall, an amount equal to 17 percent of the state’s discretionary fund. He warned that additional cuts are ahead if voters reject his tax-hike initiative in November.

“Cutting alone really doesn’t do it,” Brown told reporters in releasing his $91 billion general fund budget plan. “And that’s why I’m linking the serious budget reductions — real increase to austerity — with a plea to the voters: Please increase taxes temporarily on the most affluent and everyone else with a quarter of a cent sales tax.”

Brown, a Democrat, also is asking state workers to share the pain by taking a 5 percent pay cut, most likely by reducing their work hours. The pay reduction would be handled in contract negotiations with the state’s public employee unions.

In addition to the cuts, Brown hopes to close the deficit with $5.9 billion in new revenue from the tax initiative he proposed earlier this year that would temporarily add a quarter cent in the state sales tax and collect higher income taxes on those who make $250,000 a year or more.

If voters reject the tax increases in the fall, Brown is proposing $6 billion in additional automatic spending cuts, almost all of which would fall on K-12 schools. The so-called trigger cuts could mean that some districts would have to cut the school year by up to three weeks.

Read more at ABCNews.com….

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