“Unexpectedly” Bad Job Numbers
Glenn Reynolds has been noting the “unexpectedly” bad job reports for many months now. In other words, for some reason, news outlets, pundits and the government all seem to be surprised that the job market continues to stink. Month after month, they’ve amped up hopes that unemployment is going to go down while new job numbers leap up. Today’s report was no different and also revealed that the past two months were–you got it–“unexpectedly” worse than originally thought.
The nation’s unemployment rate ticked up to 9.2 percent in June from 9.1 percent the month before as businesses and government agencies added only 18,000 jobs to their payrolls, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.
The number of Americans classified as unemployed rose to 14.1 million from 13.9 million in May….”The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for April was revised from +232,000 to +217,000,” BLS reports, “and the change for May was revised from +54,000 to +25,000.
So let’s extend those unemployment benefits again! There’s nothing that motivates people to go back to work like getting a free check in the mail every week!
Oh wait.
I can understand the Fed needing to demonstrate a positive attitude when it comes to the economy overall, especially when we’re in the situation we’re in… However, they are playing osterich here, the numbers don’t lie and you can’t tell me they don’t know what’s going on.
Sure you need to put on a smile, but fess up to what’s REALLY going on.
Perhaps the Stimulus didn’t exactly ‘stimulate’ as much as anticipated, Hhhmmm?
Let’s add heaps of regs and taxes while spending a ton of money on one-time projects, while borrowing billions and billions of dollars…. THAT should fix things!!
And raise that debt ceiling!
I am truly concerned with the financial future of our Federal and State governments.
“while borrowing billions and billions of dollars”
From our largest economic rival…
The real unemployment rate is upwards of 17%. How’s that for reality Emperor Hussein? Gas prices double,unemployment doubles and media lies triple. This presidency is a great textbook example on how to run an economy (and a country) into the ground which is the Empereor Husseins real intent.Private sector beware. The Emperor despises you.
“Let’s add heaps of regs and taxes while spending a ton of money on one-time projects, while borrowing billions and billions of dollars”
Yes, let’s beat down the private sector, the only place that jobs can be created, while growing government to an absurd size with unfathomable borrowing. How can such a plan fail???
And still there are progressives out there who claim that the federal government can accurately monitor, predict, and centrally manage the economy.
For those readers who haven’t personally witnessed the foolishness and fraud of Federal economists in action, as I have:
“The standard price of foreign crude oil by 1980 may well decline and will in any event not experience a substantial increase.” – U.S. Oil Forecast signed by U.S. Secretaries of the Treasury, State, Interior, and Defense, 1970.
Oil prices increased 10-fold from 1970 to 1980.
Did this lead them to admit the futility of the endeavor and stop predicting? No, these departments then simply published their revised forecasts based on the 1980 numbers, which also turned out to be wrong.
Time to take down ‘change you can believe in’ and put up ‘expect the unexpected’.
I was sitting in a cafe a few days ago, there was a Help Wanted sign out front, and this is in a college area. A man walked in, introduced himself to the owner, they chatted, exchanged some papers, and the guy was hired.
This is how it has to work after a recession. Recovery isn’t magic, people lower their expectations, tighten belts, and take jobs that are ‘below’ them so they can contribute to society again. Only after that does the recovery start.
Patrick, you’ll like this:
My sister had an eighteen year-old ‘house guest’ for several months (a friend’s daughter). She refused to apply to ‘any job involving food’, which conveniently ruled-out all the nearby openings. Now she’s applying for Social Security Disability Insurance so she never has to work, something about PTSD. Now realistically, this young woman might need some temporary counseling, assistance, or job training; but does anyone think that after a few year of getting a no-strings-attached SSDI check that she’s going to even TRY getting an entry-level job? I’ve watched government dependency spread like a disease amongst people I know.
After another Recovery Summer we are going to be heading to a Greek Winter.
Gee, and I thought electing a cocaine sniffing, clueless, buffoonish “community organizer” with a neo-Stalinist economic program was going to turn out so well!