WyBlog

My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Illusion of Falling Unemployment edition

Yesterday's announcement of an 8.3% unemployment rate, the best it's been in more than 3 years, is a lie. A Big Fat Honker Of A Lie.

Unless you believe that 1.2 million people suddendly took themselves out of the labor force in one month. Which has never happened before. Ever.

it appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that's not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month! So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation.

Whatever it takes to re-elect Obama, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is on the job, fudging the data. The Daley Gator has charts which illustrate the point quite effectively.

I started this weekly series half a year ago, back when Obama was promising to "focus like a laser on jobs." Was I skeptical of his intentions? Well, sure. He's a putz. But now it's obvious he's much more than just an incompetent hack. He's using the government for purely partisan purposes, manipulating key economic indicators to retain his grip on power. Helping Americans find work is not, and quite frankly probably never was, his intended goal.

Is it worth continuing these reports now? I don't know. I feel betrayed, in the sense that I perhaps naively hoped governmental agencies like BLS and CBO would honor a commitment to public service regardless of partisan bickering.

I wonder too if any of those 1.2 million folks Barry kicked to the curb will be inclined to vote Republican this year. You never know, it could make a difference.

Oh well, I've got a list of economic links from the week, so I may as well post them, with a little help from Lola.

Contrary to the Debbie Wasserman Schultz propaganda machine, George W. Bush did create 9 million new jobs. If it helps you to believe this statistic, consider that it comes from the BLS, which as we've seen is pre-disposed to report data which favors Obama.

And the Green Energy boondoggle continues to crash and burn. Solar panel maker Amonix, heavily subsidized by the U.S. taxpayer and backed by surprise! a whole coterie of Obama's donors, is laying off 2/3 of its staff.

Oops.

Despite the artificially rosy jobs numbers consumer confidence cratered in January. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index now stands at 61.1. A healthy economy has readings above 90, a level we haven't seen since December 2007.

Gee, who was president in December 2007? I can't seem to remember his name…

And who took over soon thereafter? Definitely not a coincidence, right?

Oh, and the government propaganda prognosticators had predicted a reading of 68, up from (a conveniently revised upward) 64.8 in December.

Oops.

Here's another grim statistic, something I've encountered every week at Vila Meats. The price of beef is going through the roof.

Beef prices soared more than 10 percent last year according to the Department of Agriculture, and they will likely go up at least another 5 percent this year.

No, you can't afford steak. Not even with Hamburger Helper™.

Finally for today, if our economy is really on the rebound:

I only ask because if we had a Republican in the White House the media would be all over stories like those. Really. It's kinda like their rediscovery of the homeless on the morning of a Republican president's inauguration. You watch, on January 20, 2013 the lead story won't be President Not-Obama; it'll be bread lines.

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Previously:
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Obamanomics Sets New Records edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Pipeline Dreams Busted By Green Schemes edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Downgrade Fever is Catchy edition
My Weekly Obama Jobs Report, the Short Term Gain For Long Term Pain edition
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

Posted at 12:05 by Chris Wysocki   [/economy]   Comments | Perm Link |
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