Obama addresses weak job growth
by Tim Manni
Each post that we wrote this week highlights a different problem that is holding back this country’s housing market: low rates aren’t enough, today’s mortgage market is mostly made up of the haves and the have nots, lowering home prices won’t create a more stable market and yesterday’s post discussed how the American dream of homeownership doesn’t have to turn into a nightmare. Each one of those posts identified something different that’s going wrong with housing.
But what good is identifying a problem if you can’t think of a way to fix it?
As a matter of fact, almost each post this week mentioned what needs to change and what needs to be fixed in order for housing to recover: consumer confidence. Consumers will attain confidence through an improving economy, mainly an improving job market.
While this morning’s jobs report did reveal an minor increase in private market hiring — an increase of 67,000 last month — it failed to deliver any real sense of confidence. “There’s still no discernible improving trend,” said HSH VP Keith Gumbinger.
Sensing something similar, President Obama addressed August’s jobs report to reporters and TV cameras this morning at the White House. As he has done many times before, the president reiterated that there’s “no quick fix” to the country’s economic troubles. He said it’s going to take a long time to “repair the damage.” The president cited the massive number of job losses the month he took office in comparison to the August numbers. The economy is moving in a positive direction, he said, and jobs are being created, just not as fast as we need them to.
President Obama announced that he will be making further statements next week to outline plans to institute tax cuts and/or reiterate the need for a small-business jobs bill.
We know the problems, a possible solution has been identified, but making that solution work is going to be the battle. With the Congressional elections only a few months away, you can bet that lawmakers will be making a push to improve their fortunes using new initiatives. The president’s upcoming announcement may be one of many such offerings in the weeks ahead, but outside of creating new jobs — and quickly — will any actually work?
