The real story behind job creation

[defendandprotect]

The real story behind job creation
March's job numbers were greeted rapturously by the business press. Scratch the surface of the data and things are not so rosy


Those who know arithmetic were a bit more sceptical. If the economy sustained March's rate of job growth, it will be more than seven years before we get back to normal rates of unemployment. Furthermore, some of this growth likely reflected a bounceback from weaker growth the prior two months. The average rate of job growth over the last three months has been just 160,000. At that pace, we won't get back to normal rates of unemployment until after 2022.

That's a long time to make ordinary workers suffer because the folks who run the economy are not very good at their job.

In addition to the job growth numbers, the March data also showed that the unemployment rate slipped down by another 0.1 percentage point. It now stands at 8.8%, almost a full percentage point below its year ago level of 9.7%. This, too, was treated as cause for celebration. While that may sound like progress, a more careful look at the data makes this number less impressive. The percentage of the population that is employed has actually fallen by 0.1 percentage point over the last year.

In order to be counted as unemployed, you have to say that you are looking for work. The unemployment rate did not fall because the unemployed had found jobs; rather, the unemployment rate fell because people have given up looking for work. Only in Washington would this be hailed as good news.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/05/usemployment-usa

[ThomCat]

1. Yes, only in Washington is it good news that people have been out

of work for so long that they are considered Unemployable and no longer even count as unemployed anymore.

Let's be honest here. It isn't that people are no longer looking for work. It is that they are no longer counted. Many people who are not counted are still looking.

I personally know a few on public assistance because they have been out of work so long that they no longer get unemployment and no longer count as looking for work. Every one of them searches for work, and every one of them still wants to work.

But employers won't consider them because they have been out of work for so long. They are considered untouchable. Unemployable.

Washington uses rigged numbers, and then celebrates when their rigged numbers give a slight indication of something that just isn't true. People suffer, and continue to suffer, because Washington uses false signs as excuses for refusing to do anything positive that will provide assistance or relief.

If Washington used honest numbers, they'd see that the unemployment numbers are nearly twice what they say they are.

They would see that the unemployment numbers are at crisis levels that cannot be ignored without consequences in minority communities.

But Washington doesn't deal in that kind of honestly.