Isn’t hope and change wonderful? The real unemployment rate is 11.6%, private sector hiring has slowed down and another half a million people dropped out of the labor force – but it’s all good news! You see, the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.1%! Whoopee!
Propaganda unemployment rate: 8.1%; Real unemployment rate: 11.6%. Reason for difference: organic growth of labor force. Don’t be confused by cheap explanations on TV why the labor force should be declining: the widely accepted definition of the labor force, that used by the CBO and all other government forecasting agencies,assumes a 90,000 growth in the labor force every month as it has to keep in line with the growth of the US population! (Read More)
It’s so bad, even the first outlets reporting the news this morning had trouble putting a positive spin on it.
The unemployment rate dropped a notch to 8.1 percent in April, the Labor Department reported on Friday, but the pace of job growth has fallen off, amid other signs that the economic recovery is losing momentum.
The economy added 115,000 payroll jobs in April, a meager showing compared with earlier this year when the jobs tally was rising at twice that rate. …
American employers added fewer workers than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell as people left the labor force, adding to concern the economic expansion is cooling.
Payrolls climbed 115,000, the smallest gain in six months, after a revised 154,000 gain in March that was larger than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 160,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to a three-year low of 8.1 percent, and earnings stagnated. …
CNBC:
April’s job report lived up to muted expectations, with the economy creating a meager 115,000 jobs during the month as the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent. …
Though the headline number indicated job creation, the total employment level for the month actually fell 169,000. The disparity likely emanates from a drop in the labor force participation rate — or the level of Americans actively looking for jobs or otherwise employed — from 63.8 percent to 63.6 percent, its lowest level since December 1981.
The amount of discouraged workers swelled from 865,000 to 968,000, an increase of 12 percent. Those working part-time for economic reasons surged 181,000 to more than 7.8 million.
“In the weakest recovery since the Great Depression, more than four-fifths of the reduction in unemployment has been accomplished by a dropping adult labor force participation rate — essentially persuading adults they don’t need a job, or the job they could find is not worth having,” said University of Maryland economist Peter Morici. …
One of those linked articles quoted someone who said we’re still on a recovery path. How pathetic is it that four years after the economic crisis hit we’re still talking about recovery paths?
Update: Linked by 99 Counties – thanks!
Related reading: Obama won’t rest until every American has given up looking for work.
1984 is really here. Lie about everything. Black is white, night is day, good is bad, etc. Every week the new claims number has become a weekly joke. The “unemployment” figure is like the inflation one, whatever they want to make it. No communist ever told the truth, about anything, ever.
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These times will be the historic Obama Woe, but the LMSM will spin and massage the numbers just so they can have anything below eight percent. Everyone knows different. I can’t think of hardly anything that is getting much better and many, many things are much worse. Obama is so detached he can’t relate to the amount of stretch the normal American is doing to make ends meet; just look at the cost of wardrobe items his wife purchases.
http://lonelyconservative.com/2012/05/media-suddenly-takes-interest-in-the-price-tag-of-the-clothing-of-a-candidates-wife/
Come on! What normal American can go out and buy $2000 to $3000 sweaters?!
And he’s chewing on the Romney’s? Get real.
The LMSM knows they’ll have to spin-pull him across the finish line for any chance of a win. God forbid.
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I read in the paper this morning that by fall the unemployment rate will be down below 8%. I assume the writer kept a straight face while writing it, seeing that it was another rosy story about this swell economy.
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And I just heard Mark Zandi who’s not exactly a conservative, spin that same meme. But he did say that the work force that was on UE benefits that have expired that are now older are choosing to retire instead of looking for work. Nice. Now Social Security and Medicare will probably fail even faster. Just a shift for them to different bennys.
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And let’s not forget how many file disability claims when their UE benefits run out.
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I didn’t know until just recently that if you are not employed, have no prospects for a job and that if/when “depression” sets in, that is considered by the Obama Government to be “mental illness” and entitles the individual to Social Security Disability Benefits. And no one can determine why Social Security is going broke.
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Holy cow, Jim! I did not know that “depression” was a disability! PAYDAY! I’VE BEEN DEPRESSED SINCE OBAMA WAS SWORN IN.
Off to “retire” now….thanks for the tip, silly responsible person.
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[...] real unemployement rate is 11.6%, a number you will not see in the mainstream media, and the job creation rate is dismal. Over [...]
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So if we ALL quit working and don’t even bother looking for a job then the unemployment rate is what…0.00%??
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The U-6 unemployment number stayed at 14.5%. that is the real unemployment number. That counts the underemployed and the people who have out of the workforce so long, they aren’t even counted anymore.
The stock Market tells the real story about the numbers. It dropped over 200 points on the news. Job growth insn’t even keeping up with population growth, so we have a net loss. The MSM will just keep puching the u-3 number of 8.1% and tell all the ignorant people that things are getting better.
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Hmmm…As they say: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure!
Or there are 3 types of liars: Liars…Damn liars and Statisticians!
Choose one!
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Just read more nonsense about immigration over at tnr. Mr noah says that it looks like the liberals were right – that the best way to reduce illegal immigration was to help those countries to flourish economically. Really ? In a previous sentence he mentions that it cost Americans 700,000 jobs. This is a new concept of “help” that I was not previously aware of.
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If Spain could learn our system they could lower their rate from 24% to 5% just overnight.
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