Economy Headlines
| New Unemployment Numbers Conceal Many Issues | | Print | |
| Written by Steven Yates | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday, 08 February 2010 09:11 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The number of persons officially unemployed decreased to 14.8 million. Those unemployed due to recent job loss decreased by 378,000 to 9.3 million. The number of long-term unemployed — those who have been jobless for 27 weeks or longer — continued to move upward, though, reaching 6.3 million. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of long-term unemployed has risen by 5.0 million since this deep recession’s official beginning (December 2007). That government numbers don’t tell the whole story is now common knowledge. Many, many articles on the economy openly acknowledge that the official unemployment rate does not count certain groups of people, such as those who have given up the search for work and simply dropped out of the labor force (so-called “discouraged workers,” defined out of existence in 1994). Also not counted as unemployed are those who lost jobs and have gone back to school attempting to gain new skills. The official statistic does not distinguish between those working full time and those working part time who would prefer full time work. The federal government considers you unemployed only if (1) you are not working, (2) you have applied for unemployment benefits; and (2) you have sought work within the last four weeks. John Williams’s Shadow Government Statistics, which offers figures taking account of such groups, estimates the actual unemployment rate at between 20 and 22 percent — although, like the official rate, dropping slightly during the past month. John Lott makes some observations showing that the official unemployment waters may be murkier still, given how the Bureau of Labor Statistics actually estimates how many people are unemployed and how different methods produce conflicting results. He notes that there are two ways economists measure the number of jobs: an establishment survey that asks about 370,000 employers how many people they are employing, and a household survey that asks around 110,000 people each month whether or not they are working. Around 40 million Americans work for the organizations surveyed, although that number fluctuates. The household survey is used to calculate the official unemployment rate. The BLS has made an important assumption all along, that the number of jobs gained in newly created companies is roughly the same as the number of jobs lost in firms having gone out of business. At least since the start of this recession, though, the household survey has indicated much more job loss than the establishment survey. This is because companies have gone out of business and have not been replaced. Lott thus writes, “The error in estimating the number of jobs from April 2008 to March 2009 was 10 times greater than the average error over the preceding eight years. What does this mean in terms of jobs? Normally the government would underestimate the number of new jobs by 80,000, and this time it was overestimating them by about 80,000.” He notes that we won’t have a good idea of how many “phantom” jobs that are supposed to exist according to BLS numbers but don’t, until February 2011. “In the meantime,” he concludes, “we should look at the establishment survey numbers with a great deal of skepticism.” We should note in closing that BLS numbers also do not differentiate between private sector jobs and government jobs — during a period in which government has been this country’s number one growth industry. Doubtless the number of government jobs has distorted official accounts of the health of the economy even further, since the more jobs government can artificially create, the lower the official (and unofficial) unemployment rates. Those filling these jobs do not produce wealth, however; they only move it around. Typically at a cost. Photo of Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall: AP Images
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Don Robertson
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January’s unemployment numbers were released late last week. According to the official report, unemployment fell from 10.0 to 9.7 percent last month. Employment fell in such areas as construction and transportation, while we saw the now-familiar gains in such areas as services and retail.
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Self-described moral philosopher The so-called economy, which is nothing more than government lies and head-fakes -as we read about it in the completely controlled press, isn't half the story. The collapse of the purported ethics of our society has continued unabated accelerating exponentially since the dot.com bubble burst. The degradation of our society is more than a half-century long. Fabled economic growth, whatever that is, and regardless how the government's or academia's economists want to define it, has not equated with any increased quality of life. It has equated with an increased destruction of it. Right now, the government has succeeded in temporarily shifting the perceived reality away from the full-blown depression era we have entered, to confused fears and questions about some mythical double-dip great-recession. Talk of a "double-dip" requires a belief that there has been a recovery. The Goldman Sachs' hyper-inflated stock market doesn't indicate a recovery. Everyone knows this stock market is a fraud perpetrated by the federal government -only so those who blow up the balloons can talk of this mythical "double dip" thingee. Unemployment numbers are the tip of the fraud in scientific-reporting-about-the-economy iceberg. Our "economy" is like global warming, swine flu, and the so-called war on terror. The Enlightenment is over. Welcome to the Age of Categorical Knowledge. Welcome back to that familiar place where human nature is given its appropriate due. We are not gods bent on conquest of the universe. We are not even competent scientists. We are not even very good humanitarians! Primates are born thieves, and when educated they only to become pathological liars. Welcome home. |
Ivanhoe
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Where Have All The Jobs Gone I would like to read articles at JBS that exposes the companies that have pulled up stakes in the USA and moved their manufacturing to foriegn countries. Listing how many employees they once had on their payroll her in our country. Let's name the names of these corporations and the executive officers who made millions in the process. Then let's take it a step further and boycott these companies and their foriegn made goods! Finally, let's place a heavy tariff and import tax on these goods leveling the business field giving Americans a chance to compete. This would be a fantastic economic recovery!!! |
Christians For Truth
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Recovery? Ya Right! Hey these people will come up with just about any kind of fiction that they have a chance of selling. What I wan to know is why no repentance? Where are the street preachers calling for a new 9-11 investigation and prosecutions? How come everyone "sees nothing wrong with a little relaxing family time around the tube watching the super bowl" when their not-so-distant neighbors are living now in a tent? Jobless recovery? We're doing OK? Horsesh-t. Just don't slow me down if I am having fun and screw the rest; this attitude is strongest among our "leaders". We are doomed. http://www.stormfront.org/forum/showthread.php?t=425028 |
Bob Hempker
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mrbob I don't blame the manufacturers for going overseas. Between Labor Unions and Politicians imposing fees, regulations, and taxes on them unmercifully, moving to a market-friendlier society has to be appealling. There are reasons for their moving out of the country. If they are happy here,and are making profits, they will stay. |
Ivanhoe
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What a Bunch of Negative Ninny's! If you don't have anything good to add, like how to make it better, then, shut up! Read your civic's book if you have one and you will find that the US gov't was funded soley on tariffs and duties, and stamps for a very long time.  |
