The unemployment rate, back up to 9.8 percent, stunned analysts and talking heads on early morning television. It is being reported that even the White House was surprised by the numbers, having expected to see better growth in jobs.
I can't recall if I posted it or not, but I definitely discussed the unemployment rate in private e-mails. Several months ago I opined that the moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico would have a bigger effect than most folks realized. I can only imagine the number of jobs lost in Louisiana. Not only jobs directly related to the oil industry, but all the jobs indirectly related to the oil industry are being affected: food services, health services, transportation services, and the list goes on.
This is not rocket science.
New York state halts hydraulic fracturing until at least May, 2011. I assume those workers will be idle or laid off, receiving unemployment benefits at a fraction of what they were earning while working. [Update: following my posting, others were reporting the same thing. The moratorium on hydraulic fracking means loss of American jobs.]
Off-shore drilling ban is extended for another seven years. [Update: mainstream media is starting to sit up and take notice.]
Gulf of Mexico: permit purgatory. Obama may have mortally wounded the industry offshore Louisiana. This administration has done more to set back any chance of energy independence than any previous administration. It really is quite remarkable.
Prominent members of Congress want to stop TransCanada's Keystone XL project.
The federal government is holding up leases on federal land (previously awarded) in the west.
Oh, by the way, back to the unemployment. The government said that 39,000 jobs were created last month. 39,000 jobs. That's a rounding error. There's no way the numbers could be that precise. That is neither reproducible nor statistically significant.
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