Gallup CEO Jim Clifton:
Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.
None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.
There’s another reason why the official rate is misleading. Say you’re an out-of-work engineer or healthcare worker or construction worker or retail manager: If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 — maybe someone pays you to mow their lawn — you’re not officially counted as unemployed in the much-reported 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
Forward, Comrade! Interest Costs Poised to Surpass Defense and Nondefense Discretionary Spending
Didn’t Stats Can do something like this, only with the poverty line and median incomes and taxes?
Tovarish! We make everyone employed! Just like that, 0% unemployment!
The MFM reports the American U-3 unemployment numbers instead of the U-6 numbers. (Beside playing tricks like only reporting how many jobs were created while not reporting the number of jobs lost during the same period. They did the opposite when Bush was in office.) Canadian rates are counted similarly to the U-6 rate.
http://unemploymentdata.com/current-u6-unemployment-rate/
There are also record numbers on food stamps and “disability”.
The one bright spot about this for Canada is that with our MFM covering for Obama as much as the American media, the false happy economic “news” they’ll be reporting about the U.S. should rub off on Harper and the CPC this election year.
those over 92 million out of the work force sure saved their bacon. The government just couldn’t hire that many in one stroke, it would have thrown the illegals out of work if they did.
The US debt clock give a far more realistic picture of unemployment and the other reasons why the SS America is sinking with no chance other than war to salvage the future. War is always good for the winners, notwithstanding millions dead and a few other drawbacks.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/index.html
In Canada, about 6% more people are working now than before the recession. In the U.S. it’s 2%.
Which is why you should never just look at the unemployment rate.
Seems to that the number of Americans receiving FOOD STAMPS are a much better bit on accounting IMO….
In 2014, there were some….48,000,000 Americans in receipt of said food stamps..!
That Is 14% of the population…the White House #’s are absolute BS…..as us pretty much anything rolling put of that Pissante’s mouth.
Seasonal employment and those who have stopped looking for work are always overlooked because they paint a more accurate picture of the true situation.
Common political metrics like unemployment rates, inflation rate, consumer price index, etc., have been so massaged and bastardized over the years they’ve lost all meaning.
Anyone who quotes these numbers is almost certainly trying to put one over you. As the old saying goes, “He uses statistics like a drunkard uses a streetlight; for support instead of illumination.”
Well that’s the last government contract they will ever get.
the unemployment rate in the US is about 23%. Canada’s number is also much higher than the official number the format or formula used to calculate it is bogus and is manipulated constantly by those in power. I am sure there are some people who will jump all over me for that statement but I will stand by it. it is fairly easy to start looking at how many people are really unemployed.
A but of research has produced an omen……Canada’s major banks have STOPPED offering seniors perky seniors accounts…..
I’m thinking this is evidence that the “boomers” retiring are a large factor not calculated.
“it is fairly easy to start looking at how many people are really unemployed.”
Yep. Just look for empty stores. Empty storefronts equals no sales equals nobody has any money. Also for consideration, look at how fast Target crashed and burned. Partly their own fault of course, but also partly a terrible retail environment. Because nobody has any money.
There is also the consolidation of the retail space into a few mega Big Box stores. All the little quirky outfits are done. You start noticing everything looks the same, lately? That’s because all the midsize companies that used to be around like Eaton’s and Woolworth’s and Kresgie’s are looooong since toast. Megacorp Sears is closing -hundreds- of stores in Canada as well.
Because nobody has any money.
This is two things, from where I sit.
First big thing is, an awful lot of people where I live are working part time, under the table, and/or well below their capacity. They’re working nowhere jobs doing light maintenance or food service work, because all the little companies that used to make stuff or do stuff out here in Hooterville are shuttered. Some people are doing all right, but probably half the people I see driving around out here are paycheck to paycheck. And they all carry credit card debt, and they’re all divorced at least once.
Second big thing, people don’t keep the money they make. I figure it takes a combined income of around $300k to keep a medium sized house in the suburbs, drive two reasonably new cars, have two or three kids and save up some investment money. Because although all of the above only costs about $150k a year, people only keep around half their income. The other half is tax.
Therefore, a lot of younger guys have done what Captain Capitalism does. They’re enjoying their entitlements to the fullest, working as little as possible, avoiding marriage and family obligations like the plague, and generally leaning back in the hammock with a beer while they play video games. Because while most people can’t do the math or articulate the issue, every two weeks they notice that 40 of their 80 hours work gets confiscated one way or another. And if that’s the case, working harder is not the solution. Everybody knows you can’t get ahead by working harder.
You get that attitude set in the culture, and we have, pretty soon the general run of people realize the way you get ahead is by stealing. That’s when you end up like the Soviet Union, or Mexico. Everybody is on the take, nobody works.
Then there’s a famine.
Solution? Tax cut. One easy little thing. I expect the famine will come first.
What banks have stopped discounts? I don’t pay anything for my bank a/c with CIBC.