What Drop in Unemployment?
Despite the Bureau of Labor Statistics' report that U.S. unemployment fell to 7.7 percent in February, the real jobless rate stands at 23 percent.
Despite the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ report that U.S. unemployment fell to 7.7 percent in February, the real jobless rate stands at 23 percent. That’s because the government’s official measure, known as the “U3,” doesn’t count Americans who are so discouraged by bad prospects that they’ve given up the search for work.
John Williams, the economist and statistician behind Shadow Government Statistics, a site that seeks to show how government reports on the economy are manipulated to hide bad news, reveals that in addition to being three times what the official figure shows, real unemployment is rising, not falling.
As for which industries the BLS claims added jobs, Paul Craig Roberts writes in CounterPunch:
Where are these alleged jobs? The BLS says 48,000 were created in construction. That is possible, considering that revenue-starved real estate developers are misreading the housing situation.
Then there are 23,700 new jobs in retail trade, which is hard to believe considering the absence of consumer income growth and the empty parking lots at shopping malls.
The real puzzle is 20,800 jobs in motion picture and sound recording industries. This is the first time in the years that I have been following the jobs reports that there has been enough employment for me to even notice this category.
The BLS lists 10,900 jobs in accounting and bookkeeping, which, as it is approaching income tax time, is probably correct; 21,000 jobs in temporary help and business support services; 39,000 jobs in health care and social assistance; and 18,800 jobs in the old standby–waitresses and bartenders.
That leaves about 50,000 jobs sprinkled around the various categories, but not in numbers large enough to notice.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
WAIT BEFORE YOU GO...This year, the ground feels uncertain — facts are buried and those in power are working to keep them hidden. Now more than ever, independent journalism must go beneath the surface.
At Truthdig, we don’t just report what's happening — we investigate how and why. We follow the threads others leave behind and uncover the forces shaping our future.
Your tax-deductible donation fuels journalism that asks harder questions and digs where others won’t.
Don’t settle for surface-level coverage.
Unearth what matters. Help dig deeper.
Donate now.
When it comes to critical economic and social issues, the mainstream media have left the general population dangerously ill-informed.
Despite 9 million Americans remaining out of work, economists hailed the drop of the U.S. unemployment rate to its lowest level since 2008 on Friday.
New federal statistics show a jobs market still far below pre-recession levels, despite record profits by corporations sitting on record levels of cash. What does it all mean? People want to work, but companies don't want to hire.
The 179,000 jobs created in May and boasted about by the Obama administration are no more than "the usual lowly paid non-exportable domestic service jobs -- the jobs of a third world country," former Assistant Treasury Secretary Paul Craig Roberts writes.
Roughly 150 Americans die on a daily basis as a result of their jobs, a new study from the AFL-CIO has found.
You need to be a supporter to comment.
There are currently no responses to this article.
Be the first to respond.