8.3% Unemployment Lie

8.3% Unemployment Lie

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The most recent unemployment number is a total lie, and that lie was
repeated all over the mainstream media (MSM). Two sins were committed
here, and I don’t know which one is worse. The report was a sham, and
the MSM reported that information without a single question about its
accuracy. In a story carried across the MSM spectrum, the Associated Press said, “In
a long-awaited surge of hiring, companies added 243,000 jobs in January
– across the economy, up and down the pay scale and far more than just
about anyone expected. Unemployment fell to 8.3 percent, the lowest in
three years.” The report went on to say, “At the same
time, the proportion of the population working or looking for work is
its lowest in almost three decades. The length and depth of the
recession have discouraged millions of people from looking for jobs. The
better news of the past couple months has not yet encouraged most of
them to start searching again.” (Click here for the complete AP story.)

Here’s a headline for you. If it were not for accounting gimmicks
and what the government calls “seasonal-adjustments,” the unemployment
rate would have gone up, not down! In his latest report, economist John Williams from Shadowstats.com said, “January’s
unadjusted unemployment rate rose to 8.8% . . . The only difference
between those numbers and the headline 243,000 January jobs gain and
8.3% unemployment rate, is how the seasonal adjustments were applied.
There are serious issues with the current quality of those adjustments,
and extremely small distortions in those seasonals can make big
differences in the resulting headline data.”

As far as “discouraged” workers who are not looking
for a job, that is total rubbish put out by the government. The real
story is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) simply has stopped
counting more than 1.2 million of the unemployed in its report Friday.
Williams goes on to say, “The issues here suggest that the
headline 8.3% unemployment for January has moved well outside the realm
of common experience and credibility, into the arena of election-year
political shenanigans.” Williams is such a gentleman.
Please take into consideration the government’s “official” or “headline”
number is only based on people being out of work for 6 months or less.
If the unemployment rate was calculated the way BLS did it in 1994 and
earlier, the unemployment and underemployment would be 22.5% (according to Shadowstats.com.)

A recent report by a D.C. consulting firm estimates about 3 million
long-term unemployed have been dropped from the unemployment statistics
in the last few years. (Click here for that story.)
The Obama Administration has predicted the “official” unemployment rate
would be below 8% by the November 2012 election. Heck, if you stop
counting enough people, you can get the unemployment rate down below 5%,
and that will make the 15 million or so unemployed feel really good.
Taxpayers are paying to be essentially hoodwinked by the BLS, and the
mainstream media never questions these numbers.

Meanwhile, on the very day the fantasy unemployment numbers were
released, it was reported that planned layoffs surged. Reuters reported
last Friday, “Employers announced 53,486 planned job cuts last
month, up 28 percent from 41,785 in December, according to the report
from consultants Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. January’s job
cuts were also up from the same time a year ago, gaining 38.9 percent
from the 38,519 layoffs announced in January 2011.” (Click her for the complete Reuters story.) With
unemployment going up to 8.8% (without the government’s accounting
gimmicks), this jobs report is especially dishonest, but almost every
month the government lies to America about the so-called “recovery.”

Jim Willie at Goldenjackass.com says the government lies about the
economic statistics to hide an economy teetering on the edge of an
abyss. In his latest post, Mr. Willie (who holds a PhD in statistics)
said, “The entire system requires the constant banter of
recovery, legitimacy, hope, and integrity. All are sorely lacking,
glaringly lacking. The economic numbers have few honest series of data.
My favorite honest series remains the income tax payroll withholdings,
which screams of chronic recession in basic tones. . . . The US economy
remains the weakest of all industrialized nations. Its corruption
remains the highest in data reporting. See American Airlines for job
cuts. See the Manhattan banking sector for job cuts. See state and local
governments for job cuts. See college and university construction
projects for job cuts.” (Click here for the complete Jim Willie report.)

The Federal Reserve just announced an extension of 0% interest rates
through 2014. The Fed didn’t do this because it thought the economy was
going great guns. You can say whatever you like about the Fed (I think
it should be audited on a regular basis), but those folks are not
stupid. For everybody to believe the economy is surging forward, you
have to also believe the Fed and its hundreds of economists got it all
wrong. Last Friday, the government reported an improvement in
unemployment when, in fact, it jumped up, which is why I call Friday’s
jobs number an 8.3% unemployment lie.