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How Fraudulent Was the January Unemployment Number? Unemployment Actually Went UP last month
http://libertarian-neocon.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-fraudulent-was-january-unemployment.html ^ | libertarian neocon

Posted on 02/03/2012 8:57:18 AM PST by libertarian neocon

I've written about this quite a few times before (most recently here). Essentially, the unemployment number reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is complete fiction as millions of workers have been thrown out of the labor force, artificially lowering the unemployment rate. If you look at the labor force participation rate, it is now at multi-decade lows:

As you can see, the labor force participation rate is now down over 2% since Obama has taken office. Some would argue that this is due to demographics, as baby boomers leave the labor force as they reach retirement. The problem with this argument is that if you look at the participation rate for those 55 and up, it is slightly up since Obama has taken office. All the decline in due to those who would be considered to be in their peak working years. If you keep the rate at 66%, where it was at right before Obama was elected it appears that there are 5 million people missing from the unemployment data, and it seems to be spiking right now:

What does this mean for the unemployment rate itself? By my calculations, if you keep the missing people in, it is 11.4% right now, up 0.1% from last month when it ws 11.3%. The whole thing about it being down to 8.3% is absolute hogwash. Below you can see the striking difference between the real unemployment rate and the official one:

It's really a striking divergence isn't it? While the official rate seems to show a 1.7% improvement in the unemployment rate since the peak, the improvement is really a paltry 0.4%! And if you don't believe me, check out the government's own employment to population ratio which is also at multi-decade lows:



TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: economy; obama; recession; unemployment
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To: RC one
I am happy for you two. obama has destroyed half of my retirement and is closing in on destroying my 39 year old business.

LLS

21 posted on 02/03/2012 1:09:50 PM PST by LibLieSlayer (Hey repubic elite scumbags... jam mitt up your collective arses!)
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To: libertarian neocon

What I wondered is having read that they dropped 1.2 million off the work force which of course lowered the unemployment figure quite a bit

did we always adjust the work force figure by subtracting people who dropped out of the work force?


22 posted on 02/03/2012 1:29:17 PM PST by RWGinger (Simpl)
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To: libertarian neocon

and thank you for taking the time to explain this


23 posted on 02/03/2012 1:31:24 PM PST by RWGinger (Simpl)
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To: RWGinger

“did we always adjust the work force figure by subtracting people who dropped out of the work force?”

Yes but since we have been tracking this data (since 1948) we have not ever had such a steep drop in labor force participation. It’s actually generally been rising as more women started working.


24 posted on 02/03/2012 1:56:11 PM PST by libertarian neocon
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To: libertarian neocon

thank you
does that number( 1.2 Million) look suspicious to you,
I read that allen West is questioning a 2% drop in the unemployment % for blacks. Dropped from something like 15.6 to 13.4 in one month, Jan


25 posted on 02/03/2012 3:10:21 PM PST by RWGinger (Simpl)
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