Cheerleading On Jobs

CBS Evening News did a segment, its first of the evening, on “signs of the improving jobs picture.” The headline read, “Holiday hiring bolsters jobs outlook,” which might give you a hint of the nature of the piece. Since when do temporary jobs constitute an “improving jobs picture” or a “bolstered jobs outlook” in the real world?

It actually was worse than I thought it was going to be. The reporter described five companies’ plans for holiday hiring. The first planned on hiring 5000 more than last year, the second planned a 10% increase, about 5200 temporary jobs, the third said hiring would be “up slightly,” the fourth said it planned “down slightly,” and the last said it would be “about the same.”

So this “improving jobs picture” and “bolstered jobs outlook” consists of 10,200 rather low paying jobs nationwide which will last for about three months. Has the cheerleading gotten rather desperate, or what?

Then they had a guy from Moodys who said that retailers would see a “modestly disappointing season,” that would see some growth but “not the kind of growth that they would like or the kind that they saw in the last two years.” The reporter summarized that as a “disappointing season but not a disaster,” and Scott Pelley added his profound summary of, “improvement but slow.”

How anyone gets an “improving jobs picture” out of that utterly escapes me.