According to the latest figures, the U.S. economy created 117,000 new jobs, causing the unemployment rate to drop slightly, from 9.2 percent in June to 9.1 percent in July. But, as Jeff Cox writes over at CNBC, "there is far more than meets the eye" to this bit of economic good news, which is certainly nothing to cheer about.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics breakdown says there were 139,296,000 people working in July, compared to 139,334,000 the month before, or a drop of 38,000. That's because, as a number of labor economists point out, the disparity is the result of something the government calls "discouraged workers"—people who don't have jobs but were not looking for work during the reporting period. [Check U.S. News Weekly, now available as an iPad app.]
"This is where the numbers showed a really big spike—up from 982,000 to 1.119 million, a difference of 137,000 or a 14 percent increase. These folks are generally not included in the government's various job measures," Cox wrote, adding that if you count those people as part of the workforce, the job creation and drop in unemployment disappear.
Other signs of continued weakness in the recovery include that the percentage of long-term unemployed remained unchanged in July and that the labor force participation rate has continued its downward trend since the beginning of the recession, dropping 0.2 percentage point to 63.9 percent in July. This is, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee reports, "the lowest labor participation rate in the United States since January 1984." [See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
Addressing the weak numbers, the White House continues to point fingers almost everywhere except at itself—which is where the blame belongs. President Barack Obama, who, along with congressional Democratic leaders, promised that unemployment would not exceed 8 percent as long as the stimulus package was approved, has yet to explain how he could have been so tragically wrong.
The president has acknowledged that the stimulus did not work as advertised, but only to joke that things were "not as shovel ready" as he thought. For those who continue to remain jobless however, that's a poor excuse. The reality is that the Obama administration, with its continual pursuit of higher taxes, more spending, and a wide array of new government regulation is not looking for ways to spark growth in the American economy; it has an agenda for crushing it.
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Matt of MO 4:04AM October 11, 2011
Bill Hedges of MO 3:26AM August 09, 2011
Bill Hedges of MO 2:21AM August 09, 2011