Feb 03 2012
False Employment Hope
All you need to know about the latest unemployment numbers is here. It is the same dodgy data I have pointed to for almost a year (see here, here, here and here for example, note sometimes I forgot to update the month label on the charts, but the data is up to the last month).
I will provide an update later today after my day job waves stop overwhelming me.
Yep, the job force is shrinking, this time by something like 1.2 million, and these are the numbers employment are based leading to a nice shrinking of the UE numbers too. Yipee!
If the latest CBO report doesn’t scare the heebie jeebies out of everyone, nothing will. Seriously.
I hear you Frogg1, but do we really need a CBO when there is no CB?
None of us should be surprised when Obama threatened Congress to not muck up his “efforts” to lower the unemployment rate.
ARGH!!
Santelli: Here’s What’s Wrong With the Jobs Number
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000071275
Drop out nation
More news about the drop in the labor participation rate, via Zero Hedge (emphasis in original):
A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55%. Looks like the good folks at the BLS heard us: 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.
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/02/drop-out-nation/
Heath Shuler is out – the era of the “Blue Dog” democrat is just about gone for good.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/02/03/shulers_retirement_highlights_democrats_challenges_in_nc.html
Well, the wait is finally over. it looks as if Mitt has edged Newt in NV. won’t make a lot of difference in delegate count. Seems as if the people just aren’t convinced that they want a liberal representing the Republican party. This may well be the high point for Mitt. Lot’s of the next few primaries will tend to be more conservative.
Is it really time for Sarah Palin to jump in to take the conservative votes or are we just gonna have to settle for Newt as the real conservative. Between Rick and Newt, the conservatives should be able to eliminate the riff raff out there and narrow it down to just conservatives. Well, we can hope.
RT:
Please explain… According to you Newt’s 15 point victory in SC was the be all end all, far better than Mitt’s 14 point win in FL. Yet Mitt’s 25+ point victory in Nevada shows that “…the people just aren’t convinced…” I don’t follow. Thanks!
Layman1; awwww, really? you can question me on that?
I’m attempting to be a humor writer and it was a practice piece.
There is too much truth in the piece for it to be humorous…….
It’s nice to know it isn’t a loss of 2,932,000 jobs but …
“total non-farm payrolls rose by 243,000 in January and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent.”
A lie? Political manipulation? Or maybe it’s just that most people don’t understand what they’re looking at. The answer is the latter.
Those 243,000 jobs are the total after seasonal adjustments.
The question you should be asking is, what’s the un-tampered-with number before the adjustment?
Glad you asked. The Labor Department reported a loss of 2,689,000 jobs in January.
-2,689,000 jobs – (-2,932,000 jobs) (adjustment) = 243,000 jobs
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/rosy_report_ruse_LsXHVA9epmxGzTBHeOW6WP#ixzz1lXlj8q8H
Had I done that math equation in school, I would have flunked. I would have totaled it all up and come out with a much higher unemployment number. Funny how math works one way and politics work another way…