Well, well, well, lookee what we have here. It would seem that the ongoing saga of "Hope and Change" has taken yet another nasty turn as unemployment in these United States bumps back up to nine percent as of mid-February. That is up from the much bally-hooed 8.3 percent from just a month earlier, though I think we all know that that number was nothing more than a carefully crafted work of fiction. This newest information comes to us courtesy of a just released Gallup survey. "The U.S. unemployment rate, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, is 9.0% in mid-February," Gallup said in its mid-month unemployment survey, released on February 17. "The mid-month reading normally reflects what the U.S. government reports for the entire month, and is up from 8.3% in mid-January." Gallup said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) would likely report a rise in the "official unemployment rate" in early March, when it publishes its February figures.
Gallup’s mid-month figures are not "seasonally adjusted," so that fact may provide to Barry a limited amount of "flexibility" regarding his being able to manipulate the "official unemployment rate." However, because Gallup and the BLS both conduct their unemployment surveys around the same time and Gallup’s early figures can provide a barometer, of sorts, of where the "official rate" is likely to be headed. "Gallup’s mid-month unemployment reading, based on the 30 days ending Feb. 15, serves as a preliminary estimate of the U.S. government report, and suggests the Bureau of Labor Statistics will likely report on the first Friday of March that its seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased in February," Gallup said. The survey also found that "underemployment" – those unemployed and those working part-time because full-time jobs are unavailable – rose to 19 percent, up from the 18.7 percent Gallup found in January.
Gallup said its report reflected a continuing trend of weakness in U.S. labor markets, marking a "sharp deterioration" in job market conditions. "Regardless of what the government reports, Gallup’s unemployment and underemployment measures show a sharp deterioration in job market conditions since mid-January." Gee, ya think? That decline was consistent with an economy struggling with weak growth and sharply rising energy prices, Gallup said, making it "premature" to think that the economy would not be a major factor in November’s presidential elections. "Further, it suggests that it is premature to assume the condition of the economy will not remain a major issue for Americans both financially and politically in 2012." Gallup’s survey is a random telephone tracking survey of 30,000 adults conducted through February 15, whereas BLS’s survey is done over one week in the middle of each month and surveys 60,000 households. But even Gallup's numbers don't come anywhere near accurately reflecting the severity of our current employment problem.
So in the meantime here we sit, waiting for something from this White House other than what are essentially nothing more than lies designed to pacify us or distract us. We know they're lies because recently the Congressional Budget Office released a report that shows the real unemployment in America remains very firmly affixed in double-digits, at 15 percent, at least for the month of January. And that figure is considerably higher than the White House’s very fictional 8.3 percent figure that does not include either part-time workers seeking full-time work or those who have simply given up looking for work altogether. Furthermore, the CBO reported that the "United States is experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression" with no end in sight through 2014. Worse yet, the CBO reports that the ravages of the Barry "Almighty" Economy have created an unprecedentedly high rate of long-term unemployment, which the CBO defines as a person who has been seeking work for over 26 months.
And as hard as it may be for some to believe, over 40 percent of Americans who are currently unemployed have been out of work for more than half a year, as compared with about one-quarter during the 1981–1982 recession. The extent of long-term unemployment is much greater than would be expected on the basis of its historical relationship with the overall unemployment rate. That means that during the 1981-1982 recession President Ronald Reagan led America out of–which was the only other time in the post-World War II era that unemployment rose above 10 percent as it did in October 2009 under Barry "Almighty"–long-term unemployment was 15 percent less than it presently is today under Barry. And yet Barry seems intent on only making things worse, with his only solution to our current mess being the raising of taxes for those who create the jobs. Yup, that's the answer. Even with all of this Barry still would beat all Republican comers if the election were held today. Just how stupid are the American people? Why would anyone want to re-elect the guy who is determined to destroy our country? Have we lost our collective mind?
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