Media Employment Report Cover-up: 150,000 New Jobs Added August

newsmax ^ | Sept. 6, 2003 | Staff

[MJY1288]

I don't listen to Rush or visit his webpage so I guess we remember things as they were back then. As far as the unemployment rate, it was calculated by the number of those who lost their jobs, just as it's done today.

And yes! I mispelled NASDAQ, thanks for pointing it out

[Maria S]

"They'll probable support that old workhorse-Buchanan..."

who never held a real job in his life!

[Maria S]

Best post of this entire thread!

[abclily]

The media picks and chooses the data they put out. The most recent data they have been trumpeting does not reflect the adjustment for post-secondary student unemployment. Our government may not be that stupid, but our liberal journalists certainly are that stupid - also many of our liberal politicians.

[AntiGuv]

From the very first line of the employment situation summary at the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 93,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 6.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.

The figure on the table below that from which NewsMax is demonstrating its ignorance by extrapolating this alleged rise in employed persons is seasonally adjusted.

[AntiGuv]

You will find the unadjusted figures on this page: Selected Employment Indicators.

Note the 366,000 drop from July to August 2003......

That's what establishes that the unemployment rate fell due to workers leaving the labor force [some going back to school, some giving up in disgust], not due to an increase in employed persons.....

[sarcasm]

You're ignoring the good news - the alternative measure of labor utilization figure (not seasonally adjusted) declined to 10%.

[Grampa Dave]

Thank you for post the reality instead of the left wing and third party lies/spins/bs re the unemployment figures.

[AntiGuv]

None of that contradicts my basic statement, that the unemployment rates decreased due to workers leaving the labor force either in return to school or due to giving up on the job market...

Payrolls declined, payrolls declined, payrolls declined. How do I say it again? Payrolls declined....

Take a look at the stock market performance on Friday, that'll give you a graphic presentation of what the data really said...

[Grampa Dave]

Excellent point in your reply below. Also, many industries and governmental agencies hire college students just for the summer seasonal business of higher travel, family trips and more trips to restaurants and fastfood places.

"We always have a jump in unemployment figures this time of year when college students quit their summer jobs and go back to the classroom. Media is ignoring this element of the story."

[AntiGuv]

From the very first line of the employment situation summary at the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

Total nonfarm payroll employment declined by 93,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 6.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.

The figure on the table below that from which NewsMax is demonstrating its ignorance by extrapolating this alleged rise in employed persons is seasonally adjusted.

You will find the unadjusted figures on this page: Selected Employment Indicators.

Note the 366,000 drop from July to August 2003......

That's what establishes that the unemployment rate fell due to workers leaving the labor force [some going back to school, some giving up in disgust], not due to an increase in employed persons.....

[sarcasm]

I was being, ummm, a little sarcastic.

[AntiGuv]

Heh! Sorry about that. I don't always read sarcasm well, especially after I've had to debunk this idiotic NewsMax report over and over these past couple days..

[Grampa Dave]

Yes, one of our Freepers is a double hitter in the unemployment data.

"I was actually one of both of these last month.

I did finally become so discouraged at trying to find a job that I stopped looking for one. However, I didn't really stop looking for a job for the sake of stopping looking for a job; I decided to create my own damn job.

It was through some help I got here via FR that I was able to leave discouragement behind and think, "I believe I might just be able to succeed at this, this time."

Again, the best of luck in your new venture. You will make it with your outlook and attitude.

[jackbill]

A white guy can't find a decent busboy or motel maid job to be had in this country any more.

I think that you need to get around more. I live in a small community on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At noon I go to the local 7-11 to buy a Washington Times. The 7-11 is full of Hispanic workers buying their lunches. They come to the 7-11 in trucks owned by construction companies and mechanical companies (HVAC, plumbing, etc.).

A few Sundays ago, I drove by the construction site in my neighborhood. A gang of workers were laying floor joists on the foundation of a home. There were at least a dozen of them, and every one was Hispanic.

[A. Pole]

As for those who have "given up looking for work", just who in the hell are they? If I was the sole support for my family and I was out of work, I would never give up looking for a job. Who are these people?

I know some - they either are not the "sole support" and their spouse works, or they dip in their savings and equity or they move in with the family/friends or their family falls apart or go on welfare or work at odd jobs, etc ...

One thing for sure, they will not vote for Bush again.

[Grampa Dave]

Yep, the whining liars of the former Deformed Party, who never supported GW and hate him more than their liberal buddies do.

They can't win an election, so they try 24/7/365 to electronically lynch our president.

They have less credibility than the nine lying perverts trying to the Rat Presidential Candidate for 2004.

[arete]

When you consider what this country has been through in the past few years with the 9/11 attacks, The recession that started with the collapse of NASDAC in 1999, plus the Coperate scandals that rocked Wall Street, Two major wars and a restructuring of the federal government. With all of this, It's amazing this country didn't suffer an economic collapse.

Not amazing at all. All the things and events that you mentioned are not the real problems. The real problems are the wild expansion in both private and public debt, debasement of the currency, dependence on borrow and spend consumerism rather than manufacturing, and a decline in savings. Those problems are not being dealt with and when they come home to roost, the illusion of recovery will be but a fond memory.

History will show that our economy was challenged and it passed the test with flying colors, and now that we are seeing the EU economy on the fall, our economy will grow much stronger.

The EU is practically irrelevant at this point except that they export stuff to us and buy our debt with all the dollars we send them. Focus on the big picture. The globalized economy is one huge fluster cluck with American consumers buying foreign goods and sending them dollars in return. Foreigners then use the dollars to buy up our debt further enabling the purchase of more of their goods. It's a giganic ponzi scheme with a limited ability to survive much longer. Any decline in the economies of the EU members is not a good thing.

Richard W.

[Edit35]

You are totally correct!!!

I never trusted totally the manufacturing job numbers provided by the Labor Dept., even during in the late 1990s when the Dept. was reporting a huge increase in job news.

Why?? A Labor Dept. representative on the radio this week confirmed that the manufacturing job numbers are based on a "phone survey" whereby the Labor Dept. simply calls targeted companies and asks them to provide the latest figures.

Whaa????

How easy would it be for a company Resource Manager (with a grudge against the Bush Admin) to simply fudge the numbers just to make the Administration look bad.

And don't give me the old crapola that after three years, people have given up looking for work. (If so, those figures would have been calculated two years ago.)

The real answer is that the Govt. fails to count in home-based businesses, and upstart entrenepeurs, and off the books employees, of which there are thousands.

My son, 24, graduated from college last spring and has been inundated with job applications. He has a 4-year degree in industrial engineering, and over the summer landed a great job with a Fortune 500 company, making twice what I make, and with good benefits.

Don't tell me the job market is awful, awful awful, and lousy, cause it aint. People have to learn to adapt.

Levittown, Pa.

[Grampa Dave]

We will never agree on anything.

For a guy who claims in his log on name to be anti guv, you buy every governmental claptrap story that trashes our economy and our president.

Amazing. Why do you hate our president so much?