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Friday, May 8, 2015

OUR UNEMPLOYMENT NUMBERS ARE PURE PROPAGANDA…


The smoke and mirrors involved in the calculating of our monthly unemployment numbers continues as we are supposed to be convinced that our economy is somehow becoming stronger. Because once again we are told that the unemployment rate has once again been made to drop, this time, from 5.5 percent in March to 5.4 percent in April.  And yet, for the second month in a row, the number of Americans not in the workforce managed to hit yet another record high in April.  And that would be according to jobs data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

April saw the number of people dropping out of the labor force increase from March’s record 93,175,000 to another new record of 93,194,000 people now not in the workforce. The labor force participation rate came in at 62.8 percent. The month of April is the second month where the number of people not in the workforce— whether due to discouraged workers or retiring baby boomers — was greater than 93 million. The overall unemployment data from the BLS saw payroll employment rise in April by 223,000 and the official jobless rate remain at 5.4 percent.

House Speaker Rep. John Boehner, who despite all that he said during the buildup to the 2014 election, said the new figures prove that improvements to the economy are still necessary.  He said, “While the economy continues to show some signs of improvement, too many middle-class families are struggling just to get by.”  And then went to say, “Too many Americans remain out of work, and too many are working harder only to lose ground to stagnant wages and rising costs.  We can do better.”  Well duh, John!  Then how about we get to work on that doing just that?

And in looking a little further into these numbers, bogus as they may be, we find that it would also seem that Barry’s ‘war on women’ continues pretty much at full speed ahead as a record 56,167,000 women were not in the labor force in April.  The labor force participation rate for women hit 56.6 percent, which is a 27-year low.  In March 2015, there were 56,131,000 women not in the labor force, which means that 36,000 more women have dropped out of the labor force since then. The labor force participation rate has not been this low since September 1988.

The BLS labor force numbers begin with the nation’s civilian noninstitutional population, which for women is 129,434,000.  Of that group, there were 73,267,000 women in the labor force, meaning they participated by either having a job or looking for one. This brings the participation rate for women to 56.6 percent.  Of the 73,267,000 women participating in the labor force, 69,320,000 had a job in April, and 3,947,000 did not. Those 3,947,000 are counted as the "unemployed."  Those 56,167,000 women not in the labor are simply ignored by the number crunchers.

The 3,947,000 job seekers were 5.4 percent of the 73,267,000 women actively participating in the labor force, bringing the April unemployment rate for women to 5.4 percent, up from 5.3 percent in March.  So once again it becomes painfully clear that these numbers, numbers used to create the perception that our employment picture is getting better when in fact it’s only getting worse, are nothing more than pure propaganda, and attempt to create the false impression that a economic recovery, no matter how weak, remains underway.

And then, of course, there’s the plight of blacks in America that has only managed to very much worsen despite the fact that they have had one of their own sitting in the Oval Office for the last 6 years.  You see, we’re once again told how black unemployment fell, again using those numbers provided to us by the government, to 9.6 percent in April, hitting a near 7-year low, but that still tops the peak white unemployment rate in the past decade.  The rate hit 10 percent in July 2008 and rose steadily following the financial crisis to nearly 17 percent in March 2010. 

We’re told that black unemployment, which is said to have hovered around 15 to 16 percent for years, began to show a slow decline beginning in 2012, while white unemployment over the same period never topped 9.2 percent.  White employment now stands at, again according to the government’s numbers, 4.7 percent.  The persistently higher black unemployment rate is not for lack of effort.  Black and white Americans are participating in the labor market by either looking for work or working at about the same rate, 62.6 percent of whites and 61.9 percent of blacks.

And it was in referring to the April jobs report from the BLS, Barry “Almighty’s” Chief Economic Adviser, Jason Furman, said in a statement Friday: “This report largely reflects the ongoing recovery, but jobs in April were likely also boosted by a temporary bounce-back from winter weather.”  He went on to say, “Notwithstanding the substantial progress our economy has made, it is critical to continue the overall momentum and further strengthen wage growth.”  The White House called for new policies to help the economy, it’s only taken 6 years.

Since Barry first assumed office over 10 million Americans have left the nation’s workforce.  And yet we're still supposed to believe that the nation’s unemployment rate somehow stands at 5.4 percent.  And it is in coming up with that number, that those same folks are treated as if they simply don’t exist.  They’re neither employed, nor unemployed.  They simply, are.  So whenever you here numbers that are billed as being an accurate reflection of our current employment situation, remember to take them with a grain of salt, because millions of people are being left out.  

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