[AndyMeyers]

Here are the latest employment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics dated October 8, 2004

Employee Statistics (Workers employed by others)
From Peak Employment 03/01 to 09/04 -940,000
From Lowest Employemnt 11/01 to 9/04 +696,000

Household Statistics (Workers self employed and employed by others)
From Peak Employment 03/01 to 09/04 +2,254,000
From Lowest Employment 11/01 to 09/04 +3,464,000

The Democrats claim 1.6 million jobs lost, since Bush took office, and that is simply not true.

The Republicans claim that 1.3 million jobs have been created over the last 13 months and, based on BLS statistics, that is accurate, if we use the "Employee" statistic.

If "Household" measure, which includes workers who start their own businesses and work for themselves as well as employees who work for others, is used then more than 2 million jobs have been created since Bush took office.

I am not sure what justification the BLS has for not including the employed who work for themselves in determining "employment" in the US.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

I'll do ya one better.

Take a look at the actual employment numbers including a graph in Excel format: http://www.speakeasy.org/~dervish/Employment.xls

[MTOrlando]

The Republicans claim that 1.3 million jobs have been created over the last 13 months and, based on BLS statistics, that is accurate, if we use the "Employee" statistic.

.In 2002, there were 4,019,280 births in the United States, down slightly from 2001 (4,025,933). source

Assuming a constant birthrate (it's actually been declining for several years) and no immigration, we can safely assume there are about 4 million new entrants into the "job market" each year. Think of this year's batch of new entrants being those who were born in 1986 and are just now turning 18.

If we assume half of those are female and will be instant housewives, that's still 2 million new potential employees entering the workforce.

Even if the government labor statistics were reliable - and they're not - job creation during the last 13 months is not even close to sufficient.

[Willie Green]

The Democrats claim 1.6 million jobs lost, since Bush took office, and that is simply not true.
The Republicans claim that 1.3 million jobs have been created over the last 13 months and, based on BLS statistics, that is accurate, if we use the "Employee" statistic.

In a totally nauseating role reversal, the 'Rats are pointing at PRIVATE SECTOR employment while the pseudo-conservative Administration is dependent on hyping the growth of Big Government employment to minimize the criticism.