Economy adds 103,000 jobs, but it's not enough

WASHINGTON

The jobs crisis isn't getting worse. But it isn't getting much better, either.

The economy added just enough jobs last month to ease fears of a new recession. But hiring is still too weak to bring down unemployment, which has been stuck around 9 percent for more than two years.

The nation added 103,000 jobs in September, an improvement from the month before, the Labor Department said Friday. But the total includes 45,000 Verizon workers who were rehired after going on strike and were counted as job gains.

Even setting aside that technicality, the job gains weren't enough to get the economy out of its soft patch. It takes about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. For September, the unemployment rate stayed stuck at 9.1 percent.

"Well, the sky is not falling just yet," Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors, said in a note to clients. But there was nothing great about the report, he added. "It's incredible how low our sights have been set."

On one hand, the unemployment report was encouraging for economists. Some of them had feared the nation would lose jobs in September, raising the risk of a painful second recession.

But everyday Americans can't take much solace from it, either. The Great Recession has been over for almost two and a half years, and while corporate profits and the stock market have bounced back in that time, unemployment is still high.

There are 14 million people counted as unemployed in the United States. An additional 9.3 million are working part time and would rather work full time. And 2.5 million more have simply given up looking for a job.

The Labor Department said the economy added more jobs than first estimated in July and August. The government's first reading had said the economy added zero jobs in August.

While the report was clearly better than feared, it also showed the economy is not gaining much momentum, said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at RBC Capital Markets.

"It moves you away from the ledge," he said.

It was also discouraging news for President Barack Obama, who will almost certainly have to wage his 2012 campaign under the highest unemployment of any president running for re-election since World War II.

Gene Sperling, a White House economic adviser, said the administration was "slightly comforted" that the jobs figure came in better than expected. But he said it was not good enough.

Obama, adopting a combative tone as he waits for the Republicans to settle on a nominee to oppose him, has challenged Congress to get behind his $447 billion jobs bill or risk being run out of Washington.

The Obama plan aims to jolt the economy but cutting taxes and increasing spending on schools, roads and other public projects. He has proposed paying for it in part by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Obama's Republican rivals are trying to persuade voters that he is to blame for high unemployment and the sluggish economy. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney told Fox News Channel on Friday that Obama is criticizing Congress simply because he is "looking for someone to blame."

The report sent the stock market higher. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 90 points, slightly less than 1 percent, at midday. In the bond market, yields rose, another sign that investors welcomed the news.

There were some signs that business activity is increasing. The temporary help industry added almost 20,000 jobs, and the length of the average workweek increased slightly. Wages also rose a bit.

More hiring and better pay could add up to more consumer spending. That accounts for 70 percent of the economy. When people spend more money, it generates demand for businesses, which hire more workers.

The private sector added 137,000 jobs, up from August but below July's revised total. The economy lost 34,000 government jobs. Local governments in particular cut teachers and other school employees.

Among the industries that added jobs in September were construction, retail, temporary help services and health care. Manufacturing cut jobs for a second straight month.

The economy returned in September to something closer to the job growth of earlier this year. In February, March and April, the nation added an average of more than 200,000 jobs a month.

But then manufacturing slowed, consumer confidence crashed, and Washington was caught in gridlock -- first over whether to raise the nation's borrowing limit and then on how best to get the economy going.

Meanwhile, hiring slowed dramatically. The economy added only 53,000 jobs in May and 20,000 in June. The figures out Friday showed hiring improved in July, slowed slightly in August, and improved again in September.

Still, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Congress earlier this week that the economic recovery was "close to faltering," with slow job growth dragging down consumer confidence.

Bernanke, speaking in unusually blunt terms, said he could not blame Americans for being frustrated at the financial industry "for getting us into this mess" and at Washington for not coming up with a strong response.

August's figures were revised higher to show a gain of 57,000 jobs, up from the previous estimate of zero. July was revised to 127,000 jobs, from 85,000.

Jerry Brown signs Dream Act for illegal immigrants

Thousands of California students in the country illegally will be eligible to receive state financial aid to attend public colleges, as Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Saturday known as the California Dream Act.
But Brown ducked a costly legal battle over affirmative action by vetoing a bill that would have let California's public universities consider an applicant's race and sex in admission decisions.
"I wholeheartedly agree with the goal of this legislation," Brown said in his veto message of SB185. But because of Prop. 209 - the 1996 constitutional amendment approved by California voters that outlaws "preferential treatment" on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, education or contracting - Brown said the courts, not the Legislature, should decide if changes can be made.
The decisions came as the governor continued to work through the hundreds of bills passed by the Legislature at the end of the session last month, including vetoing other measures dealing with charter schools and measurements of student performance. He has until midnight tonight to complete his work on 142 remaining bills.
The California Dream Act - AB131 - has been one of the most-watched bills on the governor's desk. The law, which takes effect in 2013, still must be approved by the UC regents, but they are expected to support the measure.
Opponents favoring stricter immigration laws are warning that they will try to block the measure through a referendum on next year's ballot.

Students excited

But undocumented students themselves cheered the news that they will be eligible to get financial help to attend the state's public colleges and universities.
"Yeah!" exclaimed UC Berkeley student Gabriela Monico, who came from El Salvador at 15 in 2005. "I'm really excited - not just for me, but knowing that so many other students will be able to qualify for state aid."
Monico, who joined her father in the United States and overstayed her visa, has paid for Berkeley with private donations and a job where she is paid through a third party. She's been homeless and has sneaked into campus buildings to sleep.
The California Student Aid Commission, which administers Cal Grants, calculates that 5,462 undocumented students will be eligible for state aid in the 2013-14 school year, at a cost of slightly more than $13 million.
The cost to taxpayers will actually be higher than $13 million in any given year because many undocumented students also will be eligible for a fee waiver at community colleges for very low-income students, and others will qualify for institutional aid provided by CSU and UC.
At UC, that could amount to $4 million or $5 million a year, according to the university's legislative director, Nadia Leal-Carrillo.
Opponents say the Dream Act will be a nightmare for taxpayers.
"Tuition rates have been going up, the universities have budget cuts of $1.2 billion and there are lotteries for classes - but if someone is here illegally, we roll out the red carpet," said Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks (San Bernardino County), who serves as vice chairman of the Assembly's Higher Education Committee.

Out of the shadows

Despite their lack of legal paperwork, the students won't be hiding in the shadows. Already, such students are required to sign an affidavit saying they are in the process of requesting legal status if they want to pay the lower in-state tuition rate at public universities.
The heads of California's three public university systems and many campus leaders have expressed strong support for the law authored by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.
About 100 undocumented students are enrolled at Berkeley, and about 800 across the UC system, UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said, adding that many such students are brought to this country as children "and didn't do anything illegal themselves."
Typically, such students have the hardest time paying for college because they cannot legally be employed, they qualify for no financial aid, and their parents often are not wealthy enough to help.
"It's incredibly stressful," undocumented student Alejandro Jimenez told The Chronicle last year as part of story showing how students from various backgrounds pay rising tuition.

Google Pays $125M to Dine With Zagat

Google Inc. has reportedly paid about $125 million to acquire restaurant-rating company Zagat.

Google announced the deal on Thursday but didn't disclose the price it paid for the New York-based company.

A source told The Wall Street Journal that the purchased was for around $125 million.

Zagat, a trusted source of restaurant, hotel and destination reviews, will no doubt help Google, an Internet search leader, create and maintain more original content.

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president for local, maps and location services, on Thursday said she's thrilled her company made the acquisition.

"Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offering - delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world," Mayer wrote in a blog post. "With Zagat, we gain a world-class team that has more experience in consumer based-surveys, recommendations and reviews than anyone else in the industry."

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The restaurant review company was founded by Tim and Nina Zagat more than 32 years ago, and has since established itself as a trusted brand all over the world over. It operates in 13 categories and more than 100 cities.

The Zagats confirmed the acquisition on their company's Web site and noted that they believe the union is the right next step for their employees, users and for their business. They said all will benefit from the additional resources and reach that Google provides.

"Going forward, we will remain active in the business as co-Chairs, helping to ensure that the combination of Zagat's and Google's assets and capabilities will maximize our product quality and growth," the couple wrote.

Mayer said the Zagats have demonstrated their ability to innovate and to do so with tremendous insight.

"Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content) -gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed, she wrote on the blog.

She added that the company's iconic pocket-sized guides with paragraphs summarizing and "snippeting" sentiment were "mobile" before "mobile" involved electronics.

"Today, Zagat provides people with a democratized, authentic and comprehensive view of where to eat, drink, stay, shop and play worldwide based on millions of reviews and ratings," she wrote. "For all of these reasons, I'm incredibly excited to collaborate with Zagat to bring the power of Google search and Google Maps to their products and users, and to bring their innovation, trusted reputation and wealth of experience to our users."

Before the acquisition, Mayer said about two years ago friend asked her if she knew there's a place in Menlo Park near the Safeway that has a 27 food rating.

"I was struck because I immediately knew what it meant. Food rating... 30 point scale... Zagat. And the place... had to be good. With no other context, I instantly recognized and trusted Zagat's review and recommendation," Mayer wrote.

A year after 9/11, finding a New York that persevered

I went to New York nine years ago to report on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and found a city that was not only moving forward, but one that had never stopped.

New York City is an extraordinary place. Generations of Americans and millions of foreign immigrants have been thrilled by its kinetic energy, its opportunities for exploration and reinvention.

But, being one of the city's upstate cousins, we don't always appreciate its greatness. Sometimes, we even resent the place. But 10 years ago, you could not feel anything but grief for the casualties and admiration for the resilience of the survivors.

The terrorists who destroyed the Twin Towers did not bring New York to its knees. Even as the towers burned, and fell, hundreds of New Yorkers were rushing toward Ground Zero, to help in any way they could.

That very day, New York began to recover and rebuild. By a year later, what was most remarkable about

the city was the way everyone was going about their business, hustling and honking, showing up and showing off.

New York, with its gaping wound, was still New York.

I walked and rode all over downtown Manhattan that day, from the subways to the Staten Island ferry to the top of the Empire State Building.

Everywhere, people were moving with a purpose, getting to work, whether on Wall Street or simply on the street, where they sold paintings or souvenirs or hot dogs.

No one was frozen in fear. No one cringed when planes went over. But no one was forgetting, either.

A man getting on the ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan turned pale and walked away after telling me he had been on the ferry that morning a year before and had seen the first plane go screaming overhead.

A New York firefighter and his wife and son stood at the rail of the ferry as we glided into Manhattan, talking about the gap in the skyline where the towers had stood.

Tourists atop the Empire State Building, once again the city's tallest skyscraper, gazed through coin-operated binoculars and peered down the scores of floors to the street, from which sounds rose up, the moan of a siren, the clamor of a jackhammer.

A man talked about his son, who had worked in one of the towers and had escaped but who had changed, growing distant, separating from his wife, staying holed up in his house outside the city.

The scars were there, but, except for the hole at Ground Zero, where the cleanup was proceeding, they were hard to spot. Few people were injured in the attacks. They either died or they survived uninjured and the dead had been buried months before.

New Yorkers were, and are, left to deal in their own time with difficult memories and painful loss.

Meanwhile, thousands of new arrivals flood into the city each year, adding to the energy that pulses in the streets and cannot be cut off, not even by an event as traumatic as Sept. 11.