Friday, April 4, 2014

Not so fast with that optimism, buddy!

The new jobs report was released today. I have heard a few people make some optimistic noises about the fact that private sector jobs have matched the 2008 peak in terms of numbers. (See here, for example, though they do have the decency to caveat the hell out of the article.)


What I'm not hearing, and don't expect to hear from the Administration, is a comment about full-time jobs. As of March 1 2014, the US economy had 3,872,000 FEWER full-time jobs than it did at its peak in November 2007. And that's after almost five years of recovery.

And given that the working age population has grown considerably in the intervening years, the employment situation is actually even worse than it appears.

So don't let the bastards tell you how goddamned good we've got it, and what a wonderful job they've done. Because it just ain't so.

7 comments:

Icepick said...

Thank you, Deborah. People generally feel that something is wrong with the numbers and I just want them to see it quantified.

Also, the numbers above do not reflect this morning's report. But it seems unlikely we made up the difference in one tepid month.

edutcher said...

This is Barry's shell game.

How many middle class households underwater (about 20% I saw somewhere)?

How many middle class households on food stamps or disability (that's where the real unemployment figures show up)?

How many people out of work for a year finding work (11%, according to Insta)?

Depending on whom you want to believe, real unemployment is anywhere between 23 and 29%.

bagoh20 said...

So much potential squandered. Remember we haven't just lost 7 years and find ourselves sitting less employed than we were, but we spent more money than ever in history to get there.

Hell of a job there Barry. At least YOU have one.

deborah said...

And the twenty-somethings who are stagnating.

XRay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

We have such a corrupted information infrastructure from corrupt government bureaucracies to a suck up press, that we have now achieved the level where the data being provided is more likely to mislead than inform us. I don't trust anything that paints a picture of effective government. Too many sources have a conflict of interest on the subject. Besides, almost nothing we've been told has held up over time. If you can run lawless as the Democrats have from IRS election tampering, to spying on reporters, to widespread and ignored voter fraud, then you have no problem lying or cooking numbers, which is way easier.

deborah said...

Bago, is your new building working out well?