Tuesday, February 3, 2015

"The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment"

"Here's something that many Americans -- including some of the smartest and most educated among us -- don't know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading."
Right now, we're hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is "down" to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job -- if you are so hopelessly out of work that you've stopped looking over the past four weeks -- the Department of Labor doesn't count you as unemployed. That's right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news -- currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren't throwing parties to toast "falling" unemployment. (read the whole thing)

14 comments:

YoungHegelian said...

Anyone who's either looking for a job or hiring for a business knows that those numbers are bogus.

When "real" unemployment dips below 6%, the job market gets tight. Employers have trouble filling positions & start bidding up wages. Employees with marketable skills start getting solicited, if not by "headhunters" any more, than by buddies who have gone on to greener pastures to "come & join the party".

Aside from maybe Silicon Valley & the fracking fields, that isn't happening in the US, and both the employers & employees know it.

DADvocate said...

The media is in Obama's pocket. Obama isn't called President Goldman Sachs for nothing. The three cheerfully sing the lies.

ricpic said...

Part time hamburger flipping jobs do not a middle class make.

bagoh20 said...

If I give up paying taxes, will they consider me paid up?

It's a known fact that if you don't vote, or just stop breathing, they consider you a Democrat vote.

bagoh20 said...

This kind of math is part of Common Core.

bagoh20 said...

"For the fifth straight month, US manufacturing sector has slowed, according to the Department of Commerce."

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/02/03/manufacturing-drops-3-4-in-december-global-demand-falling/


Which means we are back on track and growing, and the state of the union is strong.

edutcher said...

Surprised the head of Gallup wrote that. He's already had a few visits from Solly an' da boys.

Real unemployment is still well into double digits.

If, for example, you take all working age people in the country (18 to 65) and divide them into the number of working agers actually working, you get about 22%.

Granted, you'd have to adjust for people in school, stay at home moms, etc., but, even if you lop off 5 points, you're still talking Depression-level figures.

Of course, Ritmo will be along to tell us how wrong we all are.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'm sort of curious to know the story of how it ever came to be that the national "unemployment rate" ever got to be reported regularly by the media, anyway, as if it were news, like the weather or the score of last night's baseball game.

I said, "sort of curious."

I didn't say I actually cared enough to actually go to the bother of actually reading up about it.

My knowing wouldn't make any difference, anyway.

Actually.

Unknown said...

Potemkin president
Potemkin media
Potemkin math


Hillary - the next in line for the big Potemkin treatment

Leland said...

I still remember when I became unemployed for a couple of months, while Obama was out claiming their were not enough people to fill all the STEM jobs. I and about 3,000 other engineers, former NASA contractors all, kept wondering why we needed anymore competition.

Nearly everyone I know that stayed as contractors at NASA have taken paycuts and now work less than 40 hour weeks. The fewer weeks are not because of the European lifestyle, but because there isn't much work to do.

I did manage to get a much higher paying job, and of course it was in the energy sector. Yet while I'm in good shape for the coming year, I'm again seeing thousands of STEM educated coworkers about to hit unemployment.

Titus said...

I agree with this post and I am an employer.

edutcher said...

FWIW, you can crunch your own numbers with the BLS data.

Not encouraging.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Methadras said...

duh, like it's an exposed secret now? We've been saying this for years.