The Jobs Canard

 

 

"Hey! It is getting better! The unemployment rate is down to 6.7%!"

 

 

 

The biggest surprise this weekend was not the outcome of any of the playoff games. It was not the weather. It was not the winners of the Golden Globes awards. In fact, it was not there is another glitch in the legal battles to build our new Zygi Wilf Taj Mahal. No, the big surprise was the December jobs report.

 

For the uninformed or dishonest, the December jobs report was great news! The stubborn unemployment rate (left over from the "Bush Recession"), is now down to 6.7%! Pop the corks! We are healed! The only surprise to the crew reporting this news was the stock market was not as excited as it should have been.

 

The truth however, does not lie that far below the surface. Here are some facts:

• The U3 unemployment did fall to 6.7%. However the number of people finding work was about 75,000. Due to population growth, our economy needs to add about 100,000 just to break even.
• The REAL unemployment rate (the U6), stayed unchanged at 13.1%, which is horrible.
• Our workplace participation rate sunk to another low. Over 300,000 people gave up looking for work (many of them young) in December. We now have 92,000,000 out of work. Our participation rate is the lowest since the Carter years (coincidence?).
• Here is the real kicker. Anyone fortunate enough to HAVE a job, is seeing income almost stagnant. After December, the GROWTH in real income for the last twelve months is six tenths of one percent. My energy costs and food costs have gone up much more than 1% this past year.

In the past, November and December were always good months for employment as seasonal holiday hiring offered a temporary bump. Not this year. It will be interesting to see what the focus of the Administration is for the first quarter. Saying something is better, does not make it better. Saying the War on Terror is over, stopped nothing. Saying the economy is healing and we are seeing "green spouts" once again, is nothing more than a lie. Our economy sucks and it has now for over five years.

Rather than continuing the War on Poverty (we lost by the way), let us wage war on joblessness. Well paying jobs is the cure for most ills, including poverty and unemployment. The War on Poverty cost this nation trillions of dollars and gained us nothing, but more of the same. Jobs, jobs, jobs is the only answer. Not low wage and no benefit jobs - well paying jobs with benefits that people can live on as well as raise a family on.

My advice is simply this - when some talking head from the press or the Administration starts telling us the economy is blue skies and lollypops, ask the right questions. It usually does require taking that many layers off the onion to get to the real truth. And this truth, will NOT set us free.