T1B

The U.S. economy added 245,000 jobs in November— the slowest month of growth by far since the recovery began in the spring and a warning in the months ahead as infections surge to new heights across the country.

The November unemployment rate ticked down to 6.7, from 6.9 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which releases the monthly employment report based on data it gathers during the first half of the month.

Job gains were driven by a 145,000 jobs added in transportation and warehousing, with more modest growth in other industries. Professional and business services added 60,000 jobs, health care added 46,000 jobs, and construction and manufacturing both added 27,000. Leisure and hospitality, one of the most badly hit sectors of the economy, added back 31,000 jobs, but that category is still 3.4 million jobs short of where it was in February.

Retail jobs were down 35,000; bars, restaurants and other food service establishment places lost 17,000.

The report comes during what economists and policymakers say is a perilous moment for the economy. The generous aid programs that helped prop up businesses and households during the worst of the pandemic have long expired, and the House, Senate and the White House have spent months in disagreement in negotiations over further action.

Unemployment benefits for an estimated 12 million people will expire at the end of the year, due to deadlines set by legislators in March. And the virus’ surge has begun touching off a new round of closures and restrictions, as the caseload surges to new heights across a broader swath of the country than before.

“There’s increasing evidence it [the recovery] is a K,” David Berson, the chief economist at Nationwide Insurance. “We had the big drop and for much of the country who are on the up part of the K, things are pretty good. Good job growth, good income growth, low interest rates. But the down part of the K, a substantial portion of the population is hurting significantly.”

Kierland wrote: ↑Fri Dec 04, 2020 5:22 pm This was only going to end one way, with you and me and Jsc and Bill and Pop and Diego and few other people with a conscious still standing and everyone else in their safe space- be it at .pedo or in their bunker.

Screw_Michigan wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 3:01 pm Lol

What band is that actually?

Smackie Chan wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 3:15 pm

Screw_Michigan wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 3:01 pm Lol

What band is that actually?

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Diego in Seattle wrote: ↑Sat Dec 05, 2020 4:33 pm Damn SM is young!

The coronavirus vaccine has arrived. The U.K. began the first post-trial injections of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine with a 90-year-old woman on Tuesday, with hospital workers not far behind her. (China and Russia have also begun deploying their own vaccines, but it is not clear yet how effective they are.)

The Food and Drug Administration is somewhat behind the U.K. in its approval process for the BioNTech vaccine, but it is expected in the next few days. Though the virus is spreading completely out of control in almost every state, it's good news on that front at least. Except there's another problem: The U.S. will not have nearly enough doses from Pfizer to vaccinate everyone until well into 2021 at the earliest. Though we may get other vaccines from different manufacturers, the shortfall is just one more inexplicable failure from the most incompetent clod who has ever occupied the White House.

Here's the story. Months ago, the Trump administration agreed to buy 100 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer for $1.95 billion (part of its Operation Warp Speed). But because the vaccine requires two doses, this is only enough to inoculate 50 million people — far, far short of the whole population. Now The New York Times reports that Pfizer repeatedly offered the administration another bite at the supply apple, and it turned them down several times. Other countries have naturally snapped up the doses, and Trump has shamefacedly rushed out an executive order trying to prevent other countries from getting their doses before America. "But the order appears to have no real teeth and does not expand the U.S. supply of doses," notes the Times.

People seem completely baffled as to why the administration rejected Pfizer's offer, and nobody in the administration has even attempted an explanation. The entire point of Operation Warp Speed (the smart if obvious move) was to both incentivize vaccine development and get first crack at the vaccine supply. Yet apparently the explicit goal outlined by the administration was to secure just 300 million doses — or less than half as many as would be required. In this administration the simplest explanation — that it is staffed from top to bottom with gormless, irresponsible sycophants — is usually the right one. (My personal theory is that Jared Kushner did not understand that the vaccine requires two shots.)

Now, as noted above, there are more vaccines just slightly behind Pfizer in the approval pipeline. The U.S. might be able to fill in the gaps with doses from Moderna and AstraZeneca. But declining the additional Pfizer doses was still a brain-meltingly terrible decision, and may well delay a return to normal in this country by several months.

Screw_Michigan wrote: ↑Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:45 pm Someone in his cabinet had stock in a competing vaccine developer.

Kierland wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:08 pm Herd immunity was their (lazy) strategy. They just didn’t have the balls to come out and say it so we got this half baked anti mask/ we need to get back to work message.

Worst president ever.

Kierland wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:08 pm Herd immunity was their (lazy) strategy.

the needle

Diego in Seattle wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 8:58 pm

Kierland wrote: ↑Thu Dec 17, 2020 3:08 pm Herd immunity was their (lazy) strategy.

It wasn't just laziness. They also thought that it would kill mostly Dems.

#Genocide

Innocent Bystander wrote: ↑Fri Dec 18, 2020 3:55 pm
Like a woman asked, 'when did this become black?'