David Harsanyi
Human Events
10/5/2012
The Labor Department reported today that U.S. employers added 114,000 jobs in September. The unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent – where it was when Barack Obama took office and not at the 5.8 his administration forecasted.
No doubt, the top headline of a dropping unemployment rate is helpful for the president. Democrats are celebrating. While this is certainly better news than we’ve been getting – which tells us more the sad expectations we have in the Obama era – the new unemployment rate reflects deep economic stagnation and maybe a new normal.
Let’s review…
…If bringing the unemployment rate back to the 7.8 percent (with fewer people working at lousier jobs) is what a stimulus plan, three rounds of quantitative easing and endless spending gets us, this presidency can be safely categorized as one of the worst investments in history.
Read the entire article at Human Events.
Labor Rate participation (via ZeroHedge). View larger image here.
Update: Jobs without pay help US unemployed back into work
…The unemployed work for nothing while the company gives them a placement for a month-and-a-half to prove themselves.
Although there is no promise of a job at the end of the six weeks, Mr Boissoneau defends accusations that the scheme exploits the unemployed.
“It’s fair because they’re being trained with an opportunity for their future,” he says.
“They have the chance to start a new career and earn a proper income.”…
Charles Payne of Fox Business says the unemployment drop is based on the Household Survey which he says is very volatile, and he questions the fact that over 800,000 jobs all of a sudden appeared when that number has been relatively unchanged for the last 3 months. He’s not buying it and says that next month, after the election is already over, he believes this unemployment number will be revised upward of 8%.
Update 3: Fact Check: Suspicion Falls on Labor Secretary Solis as She Misleads on Jobs Numbers
Suspicion about the federal government’s September jobs report has fallen on Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, who appeared on CNBC this morning and defended the numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), claiming–falsely–that upward revisions of 86,000 jobs were from the private sector. In fact, the new number is entirely accounted for by upwards revisions to state and federal government payrolls…
Update 4: Experts: Obama’s Jobless Numbers Hide Worsening Economy
…No president has been re-elected with unemployment above 8 percent since the Great Depression, [emphasis CAJ] and the Obama administration hopes the jobs report, the second to last before the Nov. 6 election, will boost the president’s re-election chances…
…Jay Schalin, director of state policy analysis at the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, called the unemployment rate a “shell game” and a poor tool for measuring the economy.
By making it easier for people to drop out of the labor force, the government can decrease the unemployment rate and make the economy look better, he pointed out.
Providing Social Security disability benefits, extending unemployment benefits and promoting college education are all government tools to decrease work force participation, according to Schalin…
