My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Short Term Gain For Long Term Pain edition

Anybody else think that Dear Leader's Labor Department is manipulating the unemployment numbers to enhance his re-election chances? Show of hands? Yeah, just like I thought, it's unanimous.

So the official unemployment rate has dipped to 8.5%. Unofficially, it's more like 10.9%, if you count all the people who gave up on looking for jobs.

Don't buy into today's BS unemployment rate drop, the size of the U.S. workforce is at a 27-year low and the bulk of the jobs added were "courier services" related to Christmas.

Millions of Americans aren't counted, because they haven't looked for a job in more than 4 weeks. An honest assessment would add in 7.5 million of the folks "marginally attached" to the labor force and the real picture emerges.

Yet the unemployment rate trickery still continues, with labor force participation (prior revised), now at a 27 year low of 64%, and the labor force itself declined by 50K from 153,937 to 153,887. In fact, persons not in the labor force have increased by 7.5 million since January 2007! Bottom line — dropping out of labor statistics is the new killing it.

And all this is, of course, before the half a million military job cuts Barry just announced hit the streets.

Whaddaya think that's gonna do to the unemployment numbers and his re-election chances? So naturally, the drawdown isn't going to start until November.

Short term gain, long term pain. It's the Chicago way!

Let's see, what other rosy economic news can we dredge up today? Oh yeah, the Euro continues to circle the drain. There is absolutely no good news coming out of Europe right now. Greece isn't the half of it. Spain, and probably Italy too will almost certainly go tits up by the end of the year.

It's a crapshoot whether or not Germany can hold on.

It's time for me to stock up on ammo and canned goods.

Or, I could hit the beach with Chloe.

Ahhh. Where was I? Oh, yeah…

Even the cheerleaders over at MSDNC aren't buying this "recovery" crap. 61% say they don't see any encouraging signs.

Barry's Beltway Bubble is about to burst. Must be time for another round of golf!

Closer to home, the defense cuts Barry announced are already being felt. Boeing will shutter its plant in Wichita Kansas, where 2,160 pink slips are set to go out. Oh but Kansas is a Red State, and only has 6 electoral votes anyway. Who cares if they're out of work! Certainly not David Axelrod, that's for sure.

Kodak is on the brink of bankruptcy. A filing could come as soon as next month. And with it, more layoffs. 19,000 people work there, for how much longer is anybody's guess. Then again, Kodak is headquartered in Rochester, NY, and New York is most assuredly not a Red State. Do I smell a bailout?

I wouldn't put it past him. Would you?

Hey, this sounds like a bright spot — a Rutgers University undergraduate job fair attracted more potential employers than last year. 170 companies participated, an increase of 25%. Sounds great, right? Well sure, until you realize that Rutgers graduates more than 12,000 students each year. 70 kids per employer, who are probably at best offering one or two positions each. Yeah, those are great odds.

That's all for this week. Check back next week for the revised unemployment figures, guaranteed to be unexpectedly worse than the Obamabots anticipated.

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Previously:
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Year End Wrapup Unhappy New Year Edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Debbie Wasserman Schultz Reality Check edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report: the Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Incredibly Shrinking Labor Force edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, Our Dickensian Future Edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Thanksgiving dinner is gonna cost you 13% more than last year edition

UPDATE 11 Feb 2012 10:46:
Pics removed due to DMCA takedown notice. Sorry.

Posted at 20:40 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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