- photo by Sebastian Fissore, used by permission
8.6%??? Who are they kidding? The media and the White House are touting the latest employment numbers as the lowest since March, 2009.
But the truth, the whole truth is very, very different. First, the unemployment rate has always been under-reported because it never counted the gigantic number of self-employed people whose businesses folded in the recession because they were never eligible for unemployment payments.
When the BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) reports unemployment, it uses numbers from agancies providing unemployment checks to workers who have been let go. If they’re not getting an unemployment check, they’re not counted EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE UNEMPLOYED!!
How did the BLS get the 8.6% number! Because 315,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce last month. They could not find work, so they just gave up looking and can no longer get an unemployment check. Mind you, they are still unemployed, they just don’t count them so the unemployment rate looks better.
Even when it isn’t! Consider these points:
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The percentage of working-age adults who have a job, a statistic the BLS cannot fudge , fell to 64%, a low last reached over the summer and in early 1984.
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120,000 jobs gained in November – Private employers added 140,000 (many of them seasonal), about half of that number from retail (translate that to mean layoff in January) and from temp agancies.
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The percentage of unemployed who’ve been out of work for six months or longer grew from 42.4% to 43%.
Take a look at www.shadowstats.com for a more thorough explanation of why government reports run counter to real life.
So, I propose that the BLS should be shortened to BS, because that’s what they’re dishing out with this latest report.
More to the point of the way the Gubmint “numbers idticane” that “…the national unemployment rate fell slightly in November…” – from :*The surprise drop in the jobless rate was due in large part to the statistical impact of a sharp contraction in the government’s count of the size of the overall workforce. To be counted in the labor force, you have to be actively looking for a job during the week a separate household survey is conducted.The labor force shrank by 315,000 people last month. That had the effect of lowering the ratio of the number of jobless workers when compared to the overall size of the workforce.People leave the labor force, as defined by the government survey, when they retire, go back to school or get discouraged and stop looking for a job.(Emphasis mine)But then – you already knew that, right?…By even the most optimistic possible estimate (unless you’re a Gubmint econoloon cheer-boy or an Obamoron of some sort – pardon the redundancy), the needle on the ol’ “funemployment” meter either didn’t move at all or sank a wee bit deeper into the double-digit mode. * Yeah, it’s grungy ol’ MSNBC, but they actually let a little mostly-unvarnished truth peek out this time…even if they did precede it with the usual “Things Are Looking Up” pony-under-the-shitheap lede.