Free Republic

An astonishing 2.2 million more Americans were working in October than in December, and 1.5 million fewer were unemployed.Good news about the economy continued to pour in during Election Week. Predictably, the nation’s establishment press, obsessed with its self-appointed insistence that Joe Biden is the nation’s president-elect, virtually ignored it.On Nov. 6, the government’s October jobs report revealed that the nation’s unemployment rate dropped a full point to a seasonally adjusted 6.9 percent, while nonfarm payroll employment increased by 638,000. The reported unemployment rate smashed expectations that it would only drop to 7.6 percent, while the employment increase beat expectations...

One of the assets of the American economic model is a relatively flexible labor market, especially when compared with labor markets in many European countries. It explains some of the consistently lower U.S. unemployment rates and higher economic growth. Unfortunately, this flexibility is increasingly threatened by government policies that would increase the cost of employing workers. These policies include the Department of Labor's recent overtime rules, the call for employer-paid family leave and a minimum wage increase. Some of these calls are driven by pure politics and self-interest. The typical union business model, for instance, is built on the notions...

From a solely material perspective, which is the only perspective that the government ought to consider, there is nothing wrong in our body politic that can’t be made at least a little better with more jobs. But of course, as we learned last week, the Obama administration, Harry Reid and the rest of the secular rabble known as the progressive left don't want more jobs. For them jobs are a nuisance, jobs are a hindrance, jobs are the enemy. “The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday said that the Affordable Care Act will contribute to the equivalent of 2 million...

Looking at labor markets, my biggest concern is the drop in labor force participation. The data from the Labor Department on the employment-population ratio, for instance, suggest a permanent reduction in the share of the population that is working. And since economic output and living standards ultimately depend on thequality and quantity of labor and capital that is being productively utilized, it obviously is not good news that millions of people are no longer employed. But if I had to identify a second-biggest concern, it would be the “Europeanization” of long-run unemployment in the United States. Specifically, we have a...

Either President Obama needs a new speech writer, or he needs a new set of economic policies. Actually, he needs both. Can anyone think of a more boring, banal, irrelevant, or stale speech than the one he gave this Thursday in Washington D.C.? The speech was allegedly on the economy, but more likely it was to divert attention from the Obamacare catastrophe. Whatever the motive, his idea that the defining challenge of our time is to reduce income inequality is completely wrong. In truth, the defining challenge is to restore more rapid economic growth, create substantially more jobs, and significantly...

The revelations are stunning. The proof is clear. People should have known; people should have done something. It was clear even before the Democrats rolled out their newest experiment in social engineering that it would fail. Poor in conception, flawed by design, the expectations were too high, experience too low. Yet still they elected him, with a grand assist by the media: first, nominee of the Democrat Party and then, ultimately, president of the United States. Twice. And that after spending nearly two billion dollars to do it. For that kind of money, even the government could build a fully...

President Obama has presided over a terrible jobs market. Unemployment is more than two-percentage points higher today than the White House claimed it would be if the so-called stimulus was enacted. Even more worrisome, the employment-population ratio seems to have permanently fallen, which is bad news for economic performance since our output is a function of how much capital and labor is being productively utilized. So what’s the response from the Obama Administration? Well, they want to further subsidize people for not working. I’m not joking. Here’s some of what has been reported by the Huffington Post. The Obama administration...

A couple weeks ago, this column analyzed the inflation rate reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and concluded that you should rely on your common sense when the government reports questionable statistics. If they don’t make sense based on what you see, experience, and hear from your friends, then they’re probably wrong. Last week’s unemployment number – which decreased to a still-dismal 7.8% – should not only make no sense to you, but should have never made sense to the BLS and therefore should never have been issued. So am I just popping off or is there a...

Here are the four most important data points and charts from today's job report: the civilian labor force declined from 154,198 to 153,883, a 315K decline despite the civilian non-institutional population increased (as expected) from 240,269 to 240,441: always the easiest way to push down the unemployment rate. Percentage wise this was a drop from 64.2% to 64.0%: the lowest since back in 1983. Naturally, this would mean that the people not part of the labor force rose, and indeed they did by 487,000 to a record 86,558 from 86,071. This also means that more people are looking for...

Unemployment rates rose in a majority of states in August for a third straight month, further evidence that the depressed job market is widespread. The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates increased in 26 states. They fell in 12 and remained unchanged in 12. Nationwide, the economy added no new net jobs in August, and the unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent for the second straight month. Many employers pulled back on hiring after the economy barely grew in the first half of the year. The economy added an average of just 39,500 jobs per month from May through...

The link is to a gif map of Unemployment Rates by states.