Last week the Department of Labor released their jobs report which showed unemployment up to 8.2 percent and job growth slowing to a crawl and today the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Commerce, issues the "Full Report on Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories and Orders, April 2012," which helps explain why the jobs report was as bad as it was.
New orders for manufactured goods in April, down three of the last four months, decreased $2.9 billion or 0.6 percent to $466.0 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. This followed a 2.1 percent March decrease. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 1.1 percent. Shipments, down following four consecutive monthly increases, decreased $1.5 billion or 0.3 percent to $473.2 billion. This followed a 0.1 percent March increase. Unfilled orders, down following twenty-seven consecutive monthly increases, decreased $0.8 billion or 0.1 percent to $985.4 billion. This followed a slight March increase. The unfilled orders-to-shipments ratio was 6.33, up from 6.29 in March. Inventories, up twenty-two of the last twenty-three months, increased $0.1 billion to $607.2 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 0.1 percent March increase. The inventories-to-shipments ratio was 1.28, unchanged from March.
H/T to Ed Morrissey who points out that Senior Obama campaign adviser David Axelrod, during an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation, said that despite the jobs report manufacturing continues to be a bright spot. Axelrod also said "Instead of high-fiving each other on days when there is bad news, they should stop sitting on their hands and work on some of these answers."
For conservatives it is not a matter of "high-fiving" bad news, it is a matter of highlighting the failure of Obamanomics. Obama's policies have failed and if conservatives waited for Obama or his officials to acknowledge that failure, the public wouldn't know how damaging Obama's agenda has been for America.
Axelrod also claims that Republicans should work with Obama on Job creation legislature, ignoring every single bipartisan bill that has passed through the House of Representatives that would help create jobs, just to be stalled in the Democratically controlled Senate.
Flashback to October 2011:
By January, there were nearly 30 bills, all with portions that would stimulate job growth, all passed with bipartisan support in the House, all were stalled in the Democratically controlled Senate.
Axelrod knew he was lying when he claimed manufacturing was a bright spot and knew he was lying when he said Republicans should work with Obama, when in fact it is Senate Democrats, led by Harry Reid, that have stalled and blocked bills passed by both House Democrats and House Republicans that would have created jobs and spurred economic growth.
[Update] Related- Obama's new week: Could it possibly be any worse than his last one?
Manufacturers Shipments Inventories and Orders