The Bureau of Labor Statistics released jobs numbers for January Friday showing that nonfarm payroll employment increased by 157,000 and the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent.
Lost in these headline numbers was another rise in the number of people not in the labor force.
This number now stands at a staggering 89 million, up from 80.5 million when President Obama took office.
This means that there are currently 8.5 million more Americans not in the labor force than just four years ago.
Forget all the other numbers.
This continued explosion of people not in the labor force should be tremendously concerning as it represents an obstacle for the government to ever balance the budget without drastically raising taxes on those still working.
gonna take heat for my opinion; but F 'em anyway
In addition, a study of wages across the nation would indicate that the average wage has dropped and more are working part time and temporary jobs.
Factor in the subjective methods used by the government to determine the "unemployment rate" and the damages are much, much worse.
I haven't been as clear about defense spending, but I have pointed out that both FDR and Reagan used defense spending to hype the economy. Let me make sure I'm clear. Spending money on defense creates jobs. Cutting defense spending cuts jobs. Cutting jobs means a worse economy. This does not mean we need wars. You just have to build the stuff, its expensive to use it.
The Republicans have shot themselves in the foot by hiding some of the problem. Cutting unemployment benefits means less demand and a poorer economy and it means that people who can't find a job fall of the stated unemployment roles. Thus the real unemployment rate stays the same while the official unemployment rate goes down. It was the Republican and the tea party folks who demanded we do that.
It's not government but it is state governors who have been pushing down unions and wages. That means less money to spend. That means a poorer economy. Once again we are reaping what the right planted.
Fox doesn't get it. Paul Pot Ryan and the Republicans are the engine driving budget cuts. It is the Republican austerity program that is damaging the economy.
Obama's ...
I haven't been as clear about defense spending, but I have pointed out that both FDR and Reagan used defense spending to hype the economy. Let me make sure I'm clear. Spending money on defense creates jobs. Cutting defense spending cuts jobs. Cutting jobs means a worse economy. This does not mean we need wars. You just have to build the stuff, its expensive to use it.
The Republicans have shot themselves in the foot by hiding some of the problem. Cutting unemployment benefits means less demand and a poorer economy and it means that people who can't find a job fall of the stated unemployment roles. Thus the real unemployment rate stays the same while the official unemployment rate goes down. It was the Republican and the tea party folks who demanded we do that.
It's not government but it is state governors who have been pushing down unions and wages. That means less money to spend. That means a poorer economy. Once again we are reaping what the right planted.
Fox doesn't get it. Paul Pot Ryan and the Republicans are the engine driving budget cuts. It is the Republican austerity program that is damaging the economy.
Obama's complicity is that he seems to like the idea of cutting spending, raising the retirement age and other things that will hurt the economy. The man is a blue dog even if you Republicans don't think so.
The Road to Serfdom is not overspending it is poverty and a bad economy causes povert
For instance competition works in small local business in most cases besides cable TV. On the other hand with about 10 big banks nation wide the competition argument falls apart and so does the bureaucracy argument. There is hardly any competition and a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy.
Look at China. China has turned to capitalism to recover from some of the damage from their version of failed socialist policies.
And "people not in the labor force" is a bullsh*t statistic to boot. People leave the labor force for numerous reasons - like retirement, relocation, disability, etc. The figure also includes people who have never been in the labor force at all, like Mitt Romney's children, Charles Koch's children, Rupert Murdoch's children, etc. This type of spin tries to make it seem like every one of those 89 million people (and the use of the word "staggering" is hilarious) are people who had a job four years ago and don't today.
Despite Right Wing spinning, our economy continues to improve, and the American people know it.
http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2...
Please don't try to pretend that if someone lost their job on January 21, 2009 that's President Obama's "fault." In any new administration it takes at least six months for the new administration to affect the economy in any significant manner. For instance, in February 2009 the economy lost about 700,000 jobs. Those numbers go in Bush's column.