DRAFT--PRELIMINARY AND INCOMPLETE

"How Journalists Ought to Cover the Economy": Readings for first week of classes: Employment and Unemployment:

Some background graphs:

Payroll Survey Employment Growth since 1994
Long-Term Unemployment
Unemployment and Underemployment
The Employment-to-Population Ratio
Three Years of the Unemployment Rate

Immediate Stories:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Reuters: Reuters's initial story on the January 6, 2006 BLS Employment Report: "Job growth below expectations in December" Fri Jan 6, 2006 9:20 AM ET: By Glenn Somerville..."

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Wall Street Journal Morning: The Wall Street Journal's Friday morning story about the January 6, 2006 Employment Report: "U.S. Nonfarm Payrolls Grew By 108,000 Jobs Last Month: Hiring slowed down in December as U.S. employers were more cautious in taking on new workers as 2005 drew to a close. But job growth in prior months was stronger than initially thought, and the unemployment rate declined..."

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Economist Forecasters' Immediate Reactions to the Employment Report release.

After Taking a Breath:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: AP Story : The end-of-the-day AP story about the January 6, 2006 BLS Employment Report: "U.S. Job Growth Slows a Bit in December as 108,000 Are Created.... Businesses boosted payrolls modestly in December, and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.9 percent -- evidence, President Bush said, of the economy's resiliency in the face of last year's hurricanes and high energy costs. For all of 2005, employers added 2 million new jobs..."

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Tim Duy Looks at the Fed: and guesses what the Federal Reserve's reaction will be to the January 6, 2006 Employment Report.

The Following Morning:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Greg Ip : writes about Friday's employment report for the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal.

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Edmund Andrews's next-day article on the June 6, 2006 Employment Report.

Broader Perspectives:

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Mark Thoma of the University of Oregon tries to provide perspective on the January 6, 2006 Employment Report in perspective.

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Kash Mansouri of Colby College on the January 6, 2006 Employment Report: "the US economy continues to disappoint when it comes to the creation of new private-sector jobs."

Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: Employment Report: January 6, 2006: Heritage Foundation's Tim Kane.