Obama on unemployment rate: 'That's progress'

Associated Press ^ | March 4, 2011 | JULIE PACE

[Free ThinkerNY]

MIAMI (AP) -- President Barack Obama says that a slight dip in the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent is a sign of continued progress but that keeping that momentum going is important to the economic recovery.

The government reported Friday that February's jobless rate had fallen to a two-year low, down from 9 percent in January.

[AngelesCrestHighway]

[LowTaxesEqualsProsperity]

To Obama, it’s progress that the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% because hundreds of thousands of Americans have given up looking for a job.

With more progress, we can have 0% unemployment and no one employed, with the way the Feds define unemployment.

[BobSimons]

The BLS also calculates five alternate measures of unemployment, U1 through U6, that measure different aspects of unemployment:

* U1: Percentage of labour force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.

* U2: Percentage of labour force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.

* U3: Official unemployment rate per the ILO definition occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively looked for work within the past four weeks.[2]

* U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.

* U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.

* U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment). ------------ Ask the media to report the U4 -U6 numbers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment#cite_ref-71

[Sir Napsalot]

His and Michelle’s own homebrew - White House Honey Ale (or some such).

Apparently both him and the misus had clearly planned ahead, buying equipments and such before they move to the WH (with their own funds, as they claimed).

If he had just use 1% of that ‘planning ahead’ on governing as an actual executive.....

[NC28203]

>>>Gallup says the unemployment rate is 10.3 percent. I don’t know, maybe it just me, but I tend to believe Gallup over the guvmint.

Was that the case last summer when Gallup's number were lower than the governements? The difference can largely be explained by seasonality. Gallup doesn't use it, so winter numbers look worse, summer numbers look better.

[NC28203]

>>>Ask the media to report the U4 -U6 numbers

The broadest measure of un- and under-employment, called U-6, fell to 15.9 percent from 16.1 percent in January, and is down from 17.0 percent in November.

[BobSimons]

hey..

next time its cold outside say to a liberal global warming is a fraud and tell you? “weather is not the climate””.. well.. hey libs.. One event does not make a trend, especially when you fudge the numbers.

[BobSimons]

>>>Ask the media to report the U4 -U6 numbers The broadest measure of un- and under-employment, called U-6, fell to 15.9 percent from 16.1 percent in January, and is down from 17.0 percent in November.

well... Where is my job?

[DoughtyOne]

Altogether now...

“LIAR!”

[NC28203]

>>>well... Where is my job?

Can't say. As noted by those numbers, there is still a significant ways to go wrt the labor market.

Despite the broad economic improvement, there is good reason to believe that the labor market will not be keeping pace. Rather than an aberration, high unemployment may be an enduring feature of the US economy. Retail sales have reached new highs and 4Q10 GDP set a new high for real output. The US economy was able to produce $13.38T of real output last quarter with only 139 million employees, compared to the more than 146 million Americans who were working in the 4Q07 to produce slightly less output.

The obvious but uncomfortable implication is that there had been many “zero marginal productivity jobs” on the books, propped up by the previous boom and the housing bubble. Their productivity may not be literally zero, but it is lower than the cost of training, employing, and insuring them. With firms recognizing many of these jobs as adding little economic value, it becomes difficult to imagine a quick fix.

But if you are unemployed I would think you would prefer to see improvement in the labor market as opposed to further deterioration.

[Nachum]

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[hondact200]

Gallup states the unemployment is 10.3% not 8.9% as the Obama administration. That is something to celebrate about. Okay if you reduce the number of people in the workforce and fudge the numbers (trickery and gimmicks) you come from 9.3% to a whole whopping 8.9%. yes the Obama administration well versed in gimmicks and trickery Judge Vinson wrote this in his judgement in March 3, 2011 ruling regarding Obama’s quest for a clarification after it delayed for 2 and 1/2 weeks instead of writing an appeal within 30 days. That is why there is only 7 days for the appeal to be filed. (gimmicks and trickery where have the American People seen that before the Patient protection and Affordability cae Act - an oxymoron - if you do not purchase healthcare and cannot afford it you will be taxed (as Obama says fined it is not a tax) till you purchase it. That is why there are an additional 15,00 IRS agents to be hired. Obama spreading more horse apples around - remember horse apples are not edible because in truth they are just a fancy name for horse crap.

[hondact200]

protection = Protection, cae = Care, sorry Dragon Naturally Speaking did not pick up ‘cap that’ and voice inflection on care made it sound like cae. I am trying to learn the program, moving from 70WPM to Voice Activation and making some mistakes. i have only been using it since Feb 13, 2011. Sorry for the mistakes, sometimes if I pause i get an extra comma

[hondact200]

protection = Protection, cae = Care, sorry Dragon Naturally Speaking did not pick up ‘cap that’ and voice inflection on care made it sound like cae. I am trying to learn the program, moving from 70WPM to Voice Activation and making some mistakes. i have only been using it since Feb 13, 2011. Sorry for the mistakes, sometimes if I pause i get an extra comma

[The Citizen Soldier]

President Barack Obama says that a slight dip in the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent is a sign of continued progress...

Note to Obama and the Bureau of Labor Statistics...

When you pull numbers out of your a$$, avoid the sharp ones, like 1, 4, and 7.

[libertarian27]

* U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.

This phraseology drives me crazy

They are assuming people just stop looking for work - and what? Sit at home and spin gold cloth for groceries and mortgage payments?

They are placing a psychological descriptive guess on a statistic...argh.

[Sooth2222]

"Gallup says the unemployment rate is 10.3 percent. I don’t know, maybe it just me, but I tend to believe Gallup over the guvmint."

I don't even believe the US government's weather forecasts!

Gallup (CLICK) says unemployment was up to 10.3% and underemployment was up to 19.9%.

Gallup: "Jobs Situation Deteriorates in February"

"There is essentially no difference between the unemployment rate now and the one at this time a year ago; January's rate, in contrast, showed a 1.1-percentage-point year-over-year improvement. This suggests that the real U.S. jobs situation worsened in February. That is, jobs are relatively less available now than in January."

Happy days are here again?

[nhwingut]

This guy’s like a dictator fudging nummbers.

The rate has dropped a full freakin’ point from Nov (9.8%) to Mar (8.9%) with the creation of a measly 300,000 jobs total. Historically it takes 2-3 million to drop a point.

And yet the Repubs remain silent.

[GourmetDan]

"And yet the Repubs remain silent."

The sole purpose of the Republican Party is to serve as an ineffective alternative to the Democrat Party.

[Gator113]

Credibility with anything Obama says just isn’t there.

Impeach the bastard.