Posted on 08/08/2009 6:41:41 PM PDT by Daffynition
How is it possible for the unemployment rate to essentially remain unchanged when 247,000 jobs have been lost? Because the number of people who gave up and stopped looking for work rose dramatically.
The announcement today that the unemployment rate declined slightly to 9.4 percent in July while only 247,000 additional jobs were lost has been greeted as good news. The change in the unemployment rate puts the rate at what it was in May. Yet, even a rough look at the numbers indicates that the true unemployment rate has been getting significantly worse over the last few months.
How is it possible for the unemployment rate to essentially remain unchanged when 247,000 jobs have been lost? The reason is simple -- the number of people who stopped looking for work rose dramatically. Six hundred thirty-seven thousand additional people no longer consider themselves looking for work. This is by far the largest drop in the number of people who consider themselves in the labor force during the last year. -- It is almost twice the 358,000 increase in the people who left the labor force during June and almost four times the average monthly increase of 167,333 over the last year. Jobs are sufficiently scarce and the prospects of people finding them at wages that they are willing to work for so low that many individuals don't think that it is worth their time to even look for a job. [snip]
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
They’ll start telling the truth when the welfare funds start drying up. Either that, or just suppress the pix of people starving...
Well, yea. I’m no math genius, but even I could figure that one out. But, the WH says break out the champagne! Happy Days are here again!!
Income tax returns are going to be soft .... how are they going to spin that?
If we include the normally counted number of unemployed as well as those who have recently given up looking for work and those who have taken a part-time low paying job because they can’t find full-time work, the implication is that the unemployment rate for July would be at 16.3 percent These discouraged workers will again look for work once the economy starts to improve, but this 6.9 percentage point gap between publicly discussed unemployment rate and these discouraged workers is unusually large.
From the article.
LOL the official numbers in my county are over 16%. I hate to think what the real numbers are.
What about all those Americans who have just given up trying to find a job in the new Communist America?
Wouldn't they already be included in the original unemployment figure?
Not the way these guys cook the books.
It will be spun that it is clear tax cuts don’t work. We need to suck more productivity from the system to get it kick started.
And we lost 247,000 jobs last month! I don’t care how they spin it - that’s horrible.
HOw many millions of jobs have been lost since Congress was taken over by the Marxists? And since Obama took office?
And THOSE are the numbers that really matter.
My heart goes out to all who have lost their jobs. I wish some would post here on FR and let us know how things are going.
They were, but they are now longer looking.
So, the Gov’t does not count them.
They are not working and not looking.
But, they are not employed. (they were)
It usually depresses me ... but this is the type of analysis and reporting we should be getting from the lamestream. All administrations have defined and re-defined the terms.
When Obama has record high unemployment, the media finds a way to call it good news.
-PJ
My wife would be one of those no longer looking. She got laid off as a secretary for a local company. I got a promotion at nearly the same time.
My promotion and pay raise made up for the loss of income in OUR household.
But, she is no longer a taxable worker. My taxes have gone up slightly with the promotion. But, not nearly as much to match the loss to the Gov’t as she pays no income tax now.
I agree.
With the current standard applied to 1929, I am curious what the unemployment would have been.
>>LOL the official numbers in my county are over 16%. I hate to think what the real numbers are.<<
That’s what I was thinking.
What are the real numbers in MI all around.
We must be hovering in the 30% range here in Jackson county.
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