I’ve spent the last day pouring over the new jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics yesterday morning. If you watch the mainstream media or read the New York Times, you probably heard or read this headline: “Unemployment rate DROPS to 8.1%”. However, this doesn’t even come close to telling the entire story. First of all, the number of new jobs added last month was an abysmal 96,000...and since the prior two months have both been revised to show that actually 20,000 fewer jobs were added in each of those two months than originally reported, the real number is probably somewhere around 75,000. This is about 75,000 jobs short of the 150,000 jobs we need each month just to break even with population growth. You may be asking “if so few jobs were added, then how did the unemployment number fall from 8.3% to 8.1%?” and the answer is simple but shocking. 368,000 people gave up looking for work and dropped out of the workforce…that means for every new job added, 4 people gave up hope in the job market.
You see, the unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people including people who are without jobs, available to work and have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The “actively looking for work” definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted an employer, employment agency, job center or friends; sent out resumes or filled out applications; or answered or placed ads, among other things. That number declined by 250,000 in August, but it was overwhelmed by the 368,000 drop in the size of the labor force. That suggests that many of those 250,000 stopped looking for work not because they found a job, but because they dropped out of the labor force. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed by the total number of people in the labor force.
When President Obama took office, in January 2009, the labor force participation rate was just under 66% and today it has fallen to 63.5% (the lowest levels since the labor force participation began being recorded). If the same number of people filing unemployment claims and “actively seeking work” were the same today as it was in January 2009, given the current job market, the unemployment rate would be around 11%… and if you include the 8 million Americans who are under employed (meaning working part time while actively seeking full time employment or whose jobs were cut back from full to part time) the rate would be around 14.5%. This includes 5 million long term unemployed (27 weeks or more) which makes up nearly 40% of the unemployed in America. Levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Wake up people, the economy is terrible!!! And the worst part is that there appears to be zero signs of things getting noticeably better anytime soon if we continue down the same path we are on now. Get informed…do your research…Read Read Read!!! Don’t just take some talking heads word for it…the information is out there. Go to more than one source…read both sides then dig deep into the numbers and irrefutable facts to come up with your own conclusion. Its time for Americans to quit being lead around by the nose… politicians have relied on our ignorance for far too long. Lets hold them accountable this November
You see, the unemployment rate is calculated based on the number of unemployed people including people who are without jobs, available to work and have actively sought work in the prior four weeks. The “actively looking for work” definition is fairly broad, including people who contacted an employer, employment agency, job center or friends; sent out resumes or filled out applications; or answered or placed ads, among other things. That number declined by 250,000 in August, but it was overwhelmed by the 368,000 drop in the size of the labor force. That suggests that many of those 250,000 stopped looking for work not because they found a job, but because they dropped out of the labor force. The unemployment rate is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed by the total number of people in the labor force.
When President Obama took office, in January 2009, the labor force participation rate was just under 66% and today it has fallen to 63.5% (the lowest levels since the labor force participation began being recorded). If the same number of people filing unemployment claims and “actively seeking work” were the same today as it was in January 2009, given the current job market, the unemployment rate would be around 11%… and if you include the 8 million Americans who are under employed (meaning working part time while actively seeking full time employment or whose jobs were cut back from full to part time) the rate would be around 14.5%. This includes 5 million long term unemployed (27 weeks or more) which makes up nearly 40% of the unemployed in America. Levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Wake up people, the economy is terrible!!! And the worst part is that there appears to be zero signs of things getting noticeably better anytime soon if we continue down the same path we are on now. Get informed…do your research…Read Read Read!!! Don’t just take some talking heads word for it…the information is out there. Go to more than one source…read both sides then dig deep into the numbers and irrefutable facts to come up with your own conclusion. Its time for Americans to quit being lead around by the nose… politicians have relied on our ignorance for far too long. Lets hold them accountable this November
No comments:
Post a Comment