Perry Misleads on Jobs
Texas Gov. Rick Perry used grossly misleading statistics to criticize the unemployment picture under President Obama. Perry said there are “90 million people that are out of work” and “more women out of the workforce now than at any time in our history.” The 90-million figure includes teenagers, retired seniors and only 6 million people who want a job. The women’s labor force participation rate is more than one-and-half times what it was in 1948 — not surprisingly.
Those weren’t the only claims about employment that Perry made in a May 4 interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He also boasted of 95 percent of Texas workers earning above the minimum wage. The state has improved in this regard. In 2010, it was tied for first with Mississippi for the percentage of hourly workers earning at or below the minimum wage. In 2013, Texas had moved down to fifth among the states.
Perry told “Meet the Press” host David Gregory: “I’m really worried about those 90 million people that are out of work.” That would mean Perry is worried about retirees not working, as well as high-school students. In fact, only 6 million of that figure are people who “want a job,” according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The most recent numbers from BLS show there were 92.6 million Americans age 16 and over who were “not in the labor force.” (That’s the “not seasonally adjusted” number for April 2014.) The “labor force” includes all of the employed and unemployed, as defined by BLS. To be officially “unemployed,” a person without a job must have made some effort to find employment in the four weeks before the BLS survey is taken. That means those who are counted as “not in the labor force” aren’t working and haven’t looked for work in the past month.
More at http://www.factcheck.org/2014/05/perry-misleads-on-jobs/ .
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