Posted on 02/07/2014 8:42:29 AM PST by xuberalles
The economy added a paltry 113,000 jobs last month, well below the estimated 185,000; also a historically paltry number. Yet, right on cue, the unemployment rate magically dropped from 6.7% to 6.6%. Once again, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has dumped thousands from the workforce – roughly 10 million since 2008 – in order to concoct such laughable numbers. These are federal workers, paid by struggling taxpayers, who can’t even give the public an honest answer. How do they know all of these people dropped out of the workforce? Did they ask each one? Are there enough quality jobs for those desperately searching? Are these not the same officials who admitted to fabricating statistics right before the 2012 election; without repercussions I might add? It is obvious the manner in which unemployment, underemployment, is calculated and reported must be changed.
This continued pattern of shameless manipulation is both insulting and criminal. When is Congress going to initiate hearings and hold this administration accountable for such reckless behavior? Sorry, but transparency, honest transparency at that, is fundamental to the survival of a Constitutional republic, or any business for that matter. Eventually, this House of EBT Cards will fall and the people will awake from their Obama-induced coma to discover America is on fire: 15% real unemployment, record debt, a crumbling private sector and unsustainable welfare payrolls. Too bad the liberal media is zealously providing the fuel. Propaganda is now America’s most abundant resource.
Actually, statistical methods work pretty well. A pollster will select a sample of 500, 1000, or 3000.
The BLS sample is 60,000, spread out across all census districts by population.
Their methodology is designed to ask very specific questions about activity without allowing respondents to self-classify.
You can read the whole thing at: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm
Here is their explanation of what it takes to be considered unemployed:
“Who is counted as unemployed?
Persons are classified as unemployed if they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work. Actively looking for work may consist of any of the following activities:
Contacting:
An employer directly or having a job interview
A public or private employment agency
Friends or relatives
A school or university employment center
Sending out resumes or filling out applications
Placing or answering advertisements
Checking union or professional registers
Some other means of active job search
Passive methods of job search do not have the potential to result in a job offer and therefore do not qualify as active job search methods. Examples of passive methods include attending a job training program or course, or merely reading about job openings that are posted in newspapers or on the Internet.
It is clear to me that the only thing that will stop the music is lack of food.
No amount of fiscal trouble will stop the publics’ plunder of the private. They will borrow until they can’t, period.
And how do they collect that information, from state unemployment offices? Once a persons benefits have run out they usually stop contacting unemployment offices because they no longer have a reason to. So wallah! they are no longer counted as unemployed because they have fallen off the rolls. Statistics are only as good as the information that goes into them.
No, there will be an economic or financial collapse first. Inflationary or deflationary. Long before the food stops flowing, the economy will grind sluggishly down.
I keep hoping the US Central government can keep all those plates spinning in the air until after I am buried, but I know they can’t. I’m sure I will live to see this collapse, and it is going to be ugly.
If you read the page, you will discover that they call 60,000 people in 60,000 randomly selected houses by census district. If you don’t answer, they actually send a guy with a clipboard knocking at your door. They do their best to get accurate results.
I do think some of their ideas are outdated, but they have their methodology and they stick to it.
I wrote this last year, you might enjoy it.
“Trapping Feral Pigs and Other Parables of Modern Life.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2949909/posts?page=35
Thanks for re linking us to your excellent essay.
Your Black Swan comments are even more timely today.
Our current president and his fellow fascists in Congress and the media have set off many Black Swan events.
The latest and maybe most dangerous is their Black Swan, Obozo Care, re our nation’s employment and economy.
On January 2, 2014, this Black Swan started stirring and spreading its dark wings over America re lack of jobs, increased job loss and full time jobs becoming part time jobs.
That could be the scary background for another novel.
Something evil this way cometh. There are many possible vectors, but the outcomes will all be the same if the banking/internet/electrical grids go down hard for any period of time.
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