14 Signs That Most Americans Are Flat Broke, Millions out of work or working part time jobs, 30.3 percent of millenials live with family members, 75 percent of Obama jobs went to Hispanics and Latinos, Record numbers get government assistance
“Of the approx. 6 million new employments since Obama took office in January 2009, 4,511,000, 75 percent, were Hispanic/Latino!”…Citizen Wells
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
I was preparing another article about the testimony of Janet Yellen when I ran across a hard hitting article from Zero Hedge.
She is clueless and/or being controlled.
She apparently doesn’t understand the plight of millenials.
Or the average American.
Am I the only one reporting that 75 percent of the Obama jobs added went to Hispanics/Latinos?
This comes straight from the US Labor Department data.
How about telling Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity.
We all know how bad the economy is.
We or people we know are getting clobbered and we are tired of being told about the recovery.
From Zero Hedge February 24, 2015.
“14 Signs That Most Americans Are Flat Broke And Totally Unprepared For The Coming Economic Crisis”
“The following are 14 signs that most Americans are flat broke and totally unprepared for the coming economic crisis…
#1 According to a survey that was just released, 24 percent of all Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings.
#2 That same survey discovered that an additional 13 percent of all Americans do not have any credit card debt, but they do not have a single penny of emergency savings either.
#3 At this point, approximately 62 percent of all Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
#4 Adults under the age of 35 in the United States currently have a savings rate of negative 2 percent.
#5More than half of all students in U.S. public schools come from families that are poor enough to qualify for school lunch subsidies.
#6 A study that was conducted last year found that more than one out of every three adults in the United States has an unpaid debt that is “in collections“.
#7 One survey discovered that 52 percent of all Americans really cannot even financially afford the homes that they are living in right now.
#8 According to research conducted by Atif Mian of Princeton University and Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, 40 percent of Americans could not come up with $2000 right now without borrowing it.
#9 That same study found that 60 percent of Americans could not say yes to the following question…
“Do you have 3 months emergency funds to cover expenses in case of sickness, job loss, economic downturn?”
#10 A different study discovered that less than one out of every four Americans has enough money stored away to cover six months of expenses.
#11 Today, the average American household is carrying a grand total of 203,163 dollars of debt.
#12 It is estimated that less than 10 percent of the entire U.S. population owns any gold or silver for investment purposes.
#1348 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies in their homes whatsoever.
#1453 percent of all Americans do not even have a minimum three day supply of nonperishable food and water in their homes.”
AP January jobs economy report lies inaccuracies misleading statements, Greensboro News Record regurgitates, Sloppy reporting bias or Orwellian lies?
“The (American) press, which is mostly controlled by vested
interests, has an excessive influence on public opinion.”… Albert Einstein
“the Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones.”…George Orwell, “1984”
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984”
*** See footnote below ***
*** Update below ***
There are numerous variations of the AP January 2015 jobs report from around February 7, 2015.
The Greensboro News Record regurgitated their own version in print. I could not find an online version so the print edition is provided in full below.
The News Record has been diligent in fact checking the employment data and record of the NC Republicans in power but when it comes to Obama and the national economy, anything goes.
I am disappointed that instead of fact checking the AP article and presenting the truth, they regurgitated it.
From the Greensboro News Record February 7, 2015.
“Job gains reflect growing recovery
WASHINGTON — A resurgent job market in January signaled that the U.S. economy is finally regaining the kind of strength typical of a healthy recovery — with hiring accelerating, wages rising and people who had given up their job hunts starting to look again.
Freer-spending consumers and steady economic expansion have boosted hiring for the past three months to the most robust pace in 17 years.
In January, employers added 257,000 jobs, after 329,000 in December and a sizzling 423,000 jobs in November, the government reported Friday. The November and December gains were much higher than the government had first estimated.
“The labor market was about the last thing to recover from the Great Recession, and in the last six months it has picked up steam,” said Bill Hampel, chief economist at the Credit Union National Association. “The benefits for the middle class are now solidifying.”
The average hourly wage rose 12 cents to $24.75 in January, a jump of 0.5 percent — the sharpest since 2008. In the past year, hourly pay, which has long been stagnant, has risen 2.2 percent. That’s well above inflation, which rose just 0.8 percent in 2014.
The accelerating job and pay growth now make it more likely that the Federal Reserve will begin raising the short-term interest rate it controls by midyear.
Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, predicts that the Fed will raise rates from record lows in June.
Investors responded to the better-than-expected figures by selling U.S. Treasurys, sending yields up, a sign that many think a Fed rate hike might be more imminent than they thought before. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.94 percent from 1.81 percent shortly before the jobs report was released.
Stock investors appeared nervous about a Fed rate increase, which could pull down stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 60 points, or 0.3 percent, to 17,824.
The unemployment rate rose last month to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent. But that occurred for a good reason: More than 700,000 Americans — the most in six years — began looking for jobs. Not all of them found work, which swelled the number of unemployed. The influx of job hunters suggested that Americans have grown more confident about their prospects.
Fueling the burst of hiring has been a pickup in economic growth and falling gas prices that offered Americans more money to spend. The economy expanded at a 4.8 percent annual rate during spring and summer, the fastest six-month pace in a decade, before slowing to a still-decent 2.6 percent pace in the final three months of 2014.
There are now 3.2 million more Americans earning paychecks than there were 12 months ago. That additional cash tends to boost consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic growth.
Americans are feeling better about the economy. Consumer confidence jumped in January to its highest level in 10 years, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. And consumers increased their spending during the final three months of last year at the fastest pace in nearly nine years.
A more confident, free-spending consumer could lend a spark that had been missing for most of the 5½-year-old recovery. Americans have been largely holding the line on spending and trying to shrink debt loads. Signs that they’re poised to spend more have boosted optimism that the economy will expand over 3 percent this year for the first time in a decade.
Retailers added 45,900 jobs in January, hotels and restaurants 37,100.
Though jobs in those industries typically offer lower wages, companies have boosted pay as they have scrambled to fill openings. Hourly pay has risen 3 percent in the past year for retailers and 3.4 percent for hotel and restaurant employees.”
The employment numbers used below come straight from the US Labor Department.
It is important to note that every January the Labor Dept. rectifies ( A term used in “1984” ) the data.
Beside each January you will find “1 : Data affected by changes in population controls.”
First lie/inaccuracy: There were 3 million not 3.2 million more people working since last January.
Error of omission: Over 1.3 million of those gains in employment in the last year went to Hispanic/Latinos.
Misleading: “The labor market was about the last thing to recover from the Great Recession, and in the last six months it has picked up steam,” “The benefits for the middle class are now solidifying.”
Misleading: “More than 700,000 Americans — the most in six years — began looking for jobs. Not all of them found work, which swelled the number of unemployed. The influx of job hunters suggested that Americans have grown more confident about their prospects.” That is all conjecture. Remember from above: “1 : Data affected by changes in population controls.”
Did you know?
Of the approx. 6 million new employments since Obama took office in January 2009, 4,511,000 were Hispanic/Latino!
We have barely, if at all, recovered all of the jobs lost during the recession and 75% of the job growth went to Hispanic/Latinos!!
The large numbers of young people entering the labor force are the reason that the percent of population working has dropped under Obama. I will examine this more in detail and report soon.
Approx. 9 million people net have entered the population counted by the BLS for employment population since Obama took office. That is the people turning 16 years old subtracted by deaths. That is the reason for the increase in those not in the labor force, not baby boomers as some would have you believe.
There was an increase of over 12 million not in the labor force since Obama took office.
According to Gallup CEO Jim Clifton, the unemployment rate is a big lie.
“The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment”
“Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.
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.
And it’s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual’s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity — it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen’s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.”
The consumer spending noted in the AP report is inaccurate as well, but after seeing the jobs misportrayed, you will not find that surprising.
Reread the article above and see if it squares with the facts and let those reporting this Orwellian crap know that you do not appreciate it.
As noted above, there are millions of young people entering the labor force each year and getting disproportionately clobbered by the economy and jobs market. More on this to come.
*** Footnote added 9:45 AM ***
The Labor Dept. shows approx 15 and a half million more people added to the employment population since Jan 2009.
Obviously some of those are aliens, legal or illegal.
*** Update Feb 23, 7:40 AM ***
I meant to include this important “rectification” to the AP article.
“The labor market was about the last thing to recover from the Great Recession, and in the last six months it has picked up steam,”
There were approx. 1.8 more people employed in the last 6 months. 50 percent of those, approx. 900,000, were Hispanic/Latino.
US Economy on verge of collapse?, Workers not buying labor market’s recovery, Forget unemployment rate, Record low labor force participation rates, WV drops below 50 percent, National debt exceeds GDP
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was little changed in September at 7.1 million. These individuals, who would have preferred full-time employment, were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.”…US Labor Dept. September 2014
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
I am an optimist by nature and I love and believe in this country.
I have heard Rush Limbaugh echo this attitude.
A friend recently asked me what I thought about the prospects for this country in 2015.
I paused for a moment and said I could not see much good.
The realist in me, the mathemetician, the businesman and the person paying close attention to facts, is very concerned about the US Economy.
For starters, the US debt, which exceeds the GDP, is a concern.
We are at best case scenario debt interest rates now and we are not paying down the debt and instead are rapidly adding to it. The interest service on this debt will increasingly be a burden on our budgets and economy.
The employment situation in this country is scary.
Record numbers have dropped out of the labor force and consequently record number are receiving government assistance.
Forget the unemployment rate. If you remove enough people from the labor force you will achieve full employment and a low unemployment rate. We have that scenario now. In fact one state, West Virginia, has a labor force participation rate below 50 percent yet the unemployment rate is 6.3 percent.
See what I mean?
Old Abe Lincoln once said “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
From Market Watch January 14, 2015.
“The only state where less than half its civilians work”
“West Virginia quietly passed the ignominious milestone of having less than half of its adult, civilian population in the workforce in November.
State data compiled by the Labor Department shows that West Virginia’s civilian labor participation rate has fallen to 49.8%, from 50% in October. The national rate in December was 62.7%.
The Mountain State is the only state in the history of the series, which goes back to 1976, to have fallen below 50%, though Mississippi at 50.8% isn’t far behind.
See interactive map of participation and unemployment rates.
The troubles that have befallen West Virginia have been well publicized, notably the diminished demand for coal.
At 6.3%, West Virginia doesn’t have close to the worst state unemployment rate, with Mississippi, California and Rhode Island each having jobless rates above 7%, and 11 other states with unemployment rates in the 6% range that are worse. But it’s a state where many have given up trying to find a job.”
“The U.S. labor market had a strong 2014 — the economy added the most jobs since 1999 and the unemployment rate fell, according to government data released last week.
But a Tuesday report hinted that workers don’t completely believe in the solidity of the recovery, with many still wary of quitting their jobs.”
“One trend that workers may find encouraging is the drop in competition for jobs. There were about 9 million unemployed people in November, translating to 1.8 potential job seekers per opening, the narrowest ratio since January 2008, early in the recession.
“In a stronger economy, the ratio would be smaller, but we are definitely moving in the right direction,” Gould said.”
“More job openings, but many of them are low-paying”
“The job openings and labor turnover survey has been attracting increasing attention from economists lately – both because Fed Chair Janet Yellen has called it one of her favorite indicators of the U.S. labor market’s health, and because recently it’s been signaling some real signs of strength in the long-feeble American job-creation scene.
As with much employment data, however, the headline results of this gauge – which measures the nation’s job openings, hirings, and voluntarily and involuntary job separations – tell a happier story than the details. In fact, industry-by-industry JOLTS figures add to the evidence that too many of the jobs and job opportunities being created during the current still-disappointing recovery are in sectors where wages can barely support individual workers, much less working families.”
“Based on these aggregate figures, it looks like good news that professional and business services accounted for 27.2% of the growth of job openings from January-November 2013 to January-November 2014.
But inside this part of the economy is a big group of very low-wage industries called the administrative and support services sector. Its jobs accounted for nearly 46% of all profession and business services jobs in September. The call-center workers, employment-office staffers, janitors, landscapers, waste collectors, and security guards who belong to this category make much less per hour ($7.83 in November) than the lawyers, architects, management consultants, computer systems designers, engineers, and scientific researchers who also come under the professional and business service heading.
Yet the JOLTS data doesn’t show how many openings were created in this industry’s very lucrative segments and in its much less lucrative segments.
If, however, low-wage professional and business service sectors generated a proportionate percentage of total job openings, the low-wage share of these opportunities would stand at nearly one-third as of November. And closer examination of other major employment categories, like health care, educational services, and social assistance; and the miscellaneous services category, would reveal other large low-wage sub-sectors.”
November 2014 unemployment jobs creation reality check, Low information investors, Where is the evidence of 312k jobs created, ADP reported 208k jobs, 2 plus 2 equals 4?
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
Since we live in an Orwellian age, it is difficult to believe anything we are told. Especially by the government.
Just a few days ago ADP reported 208,000 jobs added in November.
The US Labor Department just reported 312,000 jobs added for November 2014.
Where is the evidence to back this up?
It does not compute.
Consider the following numbers also reported by the US Labor Dept. for Nov. 2014. (you’re gonna love this)
4,000 more people employed.
115,000 more people unemployed.
69,000 more people not in the labor force.
8,000 more people not in the labor force who want a job now.
6,000 more people who could only find part time work.
Initial Claims October 16, 2014 lowest since April 2000?, Americans stupid enough to believe?, Huge labor force drooputs reason, Employment to population rate plummeted 5.4 percent
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
Are Americans stupid enough to believe the reports coming from the US Labor Dept., the White House and the mainstream media.
Initial Claims for October 16, 2014 are the lowest since April 2000?
If you do you had better look closer.
The employment to population ratio has dropped 5.4 percent since April 2000.
If you lose enough workers and even more full time workers you are going to be less likely to have layoffs.
I.E. you have already pared the work force to the bone.
August jobs plummet to 142k, June revised down 31k, Obama et al killing jobs, Participation rate down to historic low, Not in labor force jumps 268k, Could only find part time work leaps 68k
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“One of the CBO’s most intriguing estimates is that by 2017 there will be 2 million fewer full-time jobs on the market than there would have been without Obamacare, and that figure could climb to 2.5 million by 2024.”…Market Watch February 4, 2014
“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
From the US Labor Department September 5, 2014.
“Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the
unemployment rate was little changed at 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics reported today.”
“In August, both the unemployment rate (6.1 percent) and the number of unemployed persons (9.6 million) changed little.”
“The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, changed little in
August and has been essentially unchanged since April.”
“The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for June was revised from +298,000 to +267,000, and the change for July was revised from +209,000 to +212,000. With these revisions, employment gains in June and July combined were 28,000 less than previously reported.”
May jobs report June 6, 2014, Jobs added replace jobs lost in recession?, US Labor Dept BLS orwellian data, Low information voters and reporters, CNN Market Watch reports
“According to shocking new numbers that were just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of American families do not have a single person that is working. So when someone tries to tell you that the unemployment rate in the United States is about 7 percent, you should just laugh. One-fifth of the families in the entire country do not have a single member with a job. That is absolutely astonishing. How can a family survive if nobody is making any money? Well, the answer to that question is actually quite easy. There is a reason why government dependence has reached epidemic levels in the United States. Without enough jobs, tens of millions of additional Americans have been forced to reach out to the government for help. At this point, if you can believe it, the number of Americans getting money or benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.”…Zero Hedge April 29, 2014
“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
We not only have low information voters in this country we have low information reporters.
Yesterday the big jobs news was the alleged recovery of jobs lost during the recession.
From CNN June 4, 2014.
“U.S. soon to recover all jobs lost in crisis
”
Set your sights on this number: 113,000.
“That’s how many jobs the U.S. economy needs to hit its break-even point, to finally recover all the jobs lost in the financial crisis.
Get ready, because we’re about to get there this Friday.
That’s when the U.S. Department of Labor will release its May jobs report, and the outlook is rosy. Economists surveyed by CNNMoney expect the U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in May.”
“When the Labor Department releases the data on jobs created in May, the figures are expected to show that, for the first time, the total number of jobs has surpassed the level when the U.S. entered recession in December 2007. The U.S. is just 113,000 jobs away from the previous peak reached in January 2008. Economists polled by MarketWatch expect a 210,000 gain.”
“And it’s important to note the U.S. population has grown by about 12.5 million people since 2008. Not all of them will be in the work force, but if the numbers on labor-force participation of that group are similar to what’s seen nationally, that’s another 6 million positions to fill.”
And thank God some of the public is paying attention.
From the Market Watch article comments.
“Wayne H1 hour ago
Government fuzzy math.
US Population:
7/8 304.09M
11/13 316.99M
Growth of 12.9M during Obama presidency
US Labor force participation:
01/08 66.2M
04/14 62.8M
Jobs shrunk 3.4M during Obama presidency
US household income:
12/7 $55,500
6/13 $52,100
Down $3,400
The reality is that fewer people are making less money to support even more people.
Seamus Brown2 hours ago
Hey MW, you missed this chart:
It tells the whole story, factoring in the falling participation rate.
Of course, we all know the truth is not your goal, is it?
Will O’My2 hours ago
@Seamus Brown
This is a good one also – http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/EMRATIO
This data center has all the data for economics research, it is the Fed’s central data center.”
“Bill Johnson2 hours ago
Quick get the memo to all those extra people on food stamps that they need to cancel their benefit. They are employed again and didn’t even know it.
In the year 2000 we had 17,194,000 people on food stamps with a population of 282,162,411. In 2008 we had 28,223,000 people on food stamps. As of February of 2014 we have 46,177,144 people on food stamps. Our current population is 318,176,220 million.
This means that we went from having 6% to 14.5% of the population on food assistance in 14 years. What type of jobs are exactly being created here? What type of “progress” are we experiencing here? ARE YOU SICK AND TIRED OF IT YET!!?
Oh I know the answer, we will just keep expanding the gov’t some more. That will fix it because its obviously worked so well for us so far. Before you jump down the Democrats throats the Republicans get some of this blame too.
ADP jobs data to be released soon followed by Labor Dept Orwellian reports, Don’t tell me we are not living “1984”, Doublespeak thought control, Big Brother is watching you
“His earlier thought returned to him: probably she was not actually a member of the Thought Police, but then it was precisely the amateur spy who was the greatest danger of all. He did not know how long she had been looking at him, but perhaps for as much as five minutes, and it was possible that his features had not been perfectly under control. It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself — anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.”…George Orwell “1984″
“Nearly half of U.S. companies are reluctant to hire full-time employees because of the ACA. One in five firms indicates they are likely to hire fewer employees, and another one in 10 may lay off current employees in response to the law.
Other firms will shift toward part-time workers. More than 40 percent of CFOs say their companies will consider switching some jobs to less than 30 hours per week or targeting part-time workers for future employment.”…Duke University Fuqua School of Business December 11, 2013
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
I was sitting here anticipating the ADP payroll jobs report which will be followed by the Orwellian reports from the US Labor Dept on Friday.
It does not matter which set of numbers they present.
If you have been paying attention, no apparent good news will rectify the dismal jobs situation. The countless millions who have dropped out of the labor force or can only find part time work.
If you have not been paying attention, don’t care or have been brainwashed by the Obama camp, you will go on grazing mindlessly before the “slaughter.”
I will ignore for the moment the surveilance aspect of Big Brother as we are living with the NSA and drones. “1984” is loaded with such references.
Here are a few passages that relate to government promises.
“Winston examined the four slips of paper which he had unrolled. Each contained a message of only one or two lines, in the abbreviated jargon — not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words — which was used in the Ministry for internal purposes. They ran:
times 17.3.84 bb speech malreported africa rectify
times 19.12.83 forecasts 3 yp 4th quarter 83 misprints verify current issue
times 14.2.84 miniplenty malquoted chocolate rectify
With a faint feeling of satisfaction Winston laid the fourth message aside. It was an intricate and responsible job and had better be dealt with last. The other three were routine matters, though the second one would probably mean some tedious wading through lists of figures.
Winston dialled ‘back numbers’ on the telescreen and called for the appropriate issues of The Times, which slid out of the pneumatic tube after only a few minutes’ delay. The messages he had received referred to articles or news items which for one reason or another it was thought necessary to alter, or, as the official phrase had it, to rectify. For example, it appeared from The Times of the seventeenth of March that Big Brother, in his speech of the previous day, had predicted that the South Indian front would remain quiet but that a Eurasian offensive would shortly be launched in North Africa. As it happened, the Eurasian Higher Command had launched its offensive in South India and left North Africa alone. It was therefore necessary to rewrite a paragraph of Big Brother’s speech, in such a way as to make him predict the thing that had actually happened. Or again, The Times of the nineteenth of December had published the official forecasts of the output of various classes of consumption goods in the fourth quarter of 1983, which was also the sixth quarter of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. Today’s issue contained a statement of the actual output, from which it appeared that the forecasts were in every instance grossly wrong. Winston’s job was to rectify the original figures by making them agree with the later ones. As for the third message, it referred to a very simple error which could be set right in a couple of minutes. As short a time ago as February, the Ministry of Plenty had issued a promise (a ‘categorical pledge’ were the official words) that there would be no reduction of the chocolate ration during 1984. Actually, as Winston was aware, the chocolate ration was to be reduced from thirty grammes to twenty at the end of the present week. All that was needed was to substitute for the original promise a warning that it would probably be necessary to reduce the ration at some time in April.”
“What happened in the unseen labyrinth to which the pneumatic tubes led, he did not know in detail, but he did know in general terms. As soon as all the corrections which happened to be necessary in any particular number of The Times had been assembled and collated, that number would be reprinted, the original copy destroyed, and the corrected copy placed on the files in its stead. This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound-tracks, cartoons, photographs — to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct, nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place. The largest section of the Records Department, far larger than the one on which Winston worked, consisted simply of persons whose duty it was to track down and collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. A number of The Times which might, because of changes in political alignment, or mistaken prophecies uttered by Big Brother, have been rewritten a dozen times still stood on the files bearing its original date, and no other copy existed to contradict it. Books, also, were recalled and rewritten again and again, and were invariably reissued without any admission that any alteration had been made. Even the written instructions which Winston received, and which he invariably got rid of as soon as he had dealt with them, never stated or implied that an act of forgery was to be committed: always the reference was to slips, errors, misprints, or misquotations which it was necessary to put right in the interests of accuracy.
But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another. Most of the material that you were dealing with had no connexion with anything in the real world, not even the kind of connexion that is contained in a direct lie. Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty’s forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at one-hundred-and-forty-five million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than one-hundred-and-forty-five millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the population of Oceania went barefoot. And so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain.” Don’t tell me we are not living “1984.”
NC employment November 2013, Fact vs fiction, Unemployment rate drops from 9.5 to 7.4 percent, Jan to Nov 2013, Fewer working in Nov than Jan, Labor force participation rate plummets
“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013
“Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,”…Keith Hall, former BLS chief
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
I expect orwellian employment reporting from the Obama controlled US Government. I am less inclined to expect the same from the state of NC.
The unemployment rate fell from 9.5 percent in January to 7.4 percent in November. Yet there were fewer people employed in November than January.
More on this below.
Once again the Greensboro News record has done a fair job of pointing out that much of the decline in the unemployment rate was due to people dropping out of the Labor Force.
From the News Record December 21, 2013.
“North Carolina’s unemployment rate declined sharply in November to its lowest level in more than five years, the state Commerce Department said Friday, but seemingly inconsistent data raise questions about how many new jobs are actually being created.
The jobless rate of 7.4 percent compares to 8 percent in October and 8.9 percent back in July. The state rate is also inching closer to the national rate, which was 7 percent in November.
The department’s Labor and Economic Analysis Division said the number of people employed in North Carolina grew in the past month by just over 20,000 to more than 4.3 million.
But the labor force itself declined by 8,100, attributed in part to the long-term unemployed giving up on looking for work, said Andrew Brod, a senior researcher within the business school at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Over the past 12 months, the labor force has declined by 95,000, while the number of employed has grown by just 6,100, according to division data.
With more detailed industry survey data released showing total nonfarm employment falling by 6,500 positions, Brod said it’s uncertain how much of the drop in the jobless rate is actually due to more hiring.
The unemployment number “looks great, but it’s a continuation of a six-month trend at least in which drops in the unemployment rate are happening mostly because of people leaving the labor force,” Brod said in an interview. “This number looks good, but I take it with a grain of salt.””
Washington Post lies about baby boomer impact on labor force participation rate, More young people enter job market than retire, Older folks continue working, Intentional lie sloppy reporting
or cover for Obama?
“11.4%: What the U.S. unemployment rate would be if labor force participation were back to January 2008 levels.” …James Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute, June 2013
“The “real” unemployment rate rose from 13.6% in September to 13.8% in October, according to figures released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics”…CNS News November 8, 2013
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″
Is the repeated emphasis by the Washington Post on the impact of baby boomers on the plummeting force participation rate an intentional lie or just sloppy or biased reporting?
Intentional or not it is a lie.
Citizen Wells first criticized the Washington Post on May 9, 2012 for this false report.
“The Washington Post on May 4, 2012 posted a very misleading article titled “The incredible shrinking labor force.” Is this another example of sloppy or biased journalism or both?”
“The verbage in the top right corner looked suspicious, ”As the most recent recession hits the workforce, larger numbers of baby boomers begin to retire.” Yesterday I called the Bureau of Labor Statistics and discovered that they had not placed those words there. It was the work of the Washington Post.
So why did the Post superimpose that wording about baby boomers on the graph?”
“Critics of the Obama administration have been quick to seize on this as the real reason for the falling unemployment rate. In February, the Republican National Committee released a research note on “The Missing Worker,” arguing that “over 3 million unemployed workers have called it quits due to Obamanomics.”
Economists say the story is considerably more complicated. For one thing, the trend predates President Obama. And while part of the story is clearly that the labor force is shrinking because the bad economy is driving workers out, another significant factor is that baby boomers are beginning to retire early — a trend that has worrying implications for future growth.”
“But a number of economists are arguing that the recession is distracting people from the real story — long-run demographic trends that have nothing to do with the current economy. Baby boomers are starting to retire en masse, which means that there are fewer eligible American workers.”
On September 6, 2013 the Washington Post reported.
“So why is the labor force dropping? There are a couple big factors going on here. Older Americans are retiring, younger Americans are going back to school, and many workers have been discouraged by the weak U.S. economy. Here’s an updated breakdown:
1) The aging of America. One big reason the participation rate dropped involves long-run demographic trends that have nothing to do with the current economy. Baby boomers are starting to retire en masse, which means that there are fewer eligible American workers.
Demographics have always played a big role in the rise and fall of the labor force. Between 1960 and 2000, the labor force in the United States surged from 59 percent to a peak of 67.3 percent. That was largely due to the fact that more women were entering the labor force while improvements in health and information technology allowed Americans to work more years.
But since 2000, the labor force rate has been steadily declining as the baby-boom generation has been retiring.”
On November 8, 2013 the Washington Post once again listed older workers retiring first as a cause of the drop. They did, however, add some clarification as if to back off of their position.
“So what’s up with that broader trend? Why has the participation rate been dropping in recent years? There are a couple big factors going on here. Older Americans are retiring, younger Americans are going back to school, and many workers have been discouraged by the weak U.S. economy. Here’s an updated breakdown:
1) The aging of America. One big reason the participation rate dropped involves long-run demographic trends that have little to do with the current economy. Baby boomers are starting to retire en masse, which means that there are fewer eligible American workers.
Demographics have always played a big role in the rise and fall of the labor force. Between 1960 and 2000, the labor force in the United States surged from 59 percent to a peak of 67.3 percent. That was largely due to the fact that more women were entering the labor force while improvements in health and information technology allowed Americans to work more years.
But since 2000, the labor force rate has been declining steadily as the baby-boom generation has been retiring. ”
“So what’s going on? One theory is that the weak job market is causing people to simply give up looking for work — they’re crumpling up their resumes and going home. A recent paper (pdf) from the Boston Fed suggested that these “non-inevitable dropouts” might even account for the bulk of the decline.”
Let’s ignore immigrants increasing our work force for the moment.
The baby boomer generation is known for it’s size. However, due to the growth in the US, recent generations are even larger.
Let’s take the example of those turning 65 in 2014, born in 1949 and those turning 22 in 2014, born in 1992. I chose age 22 to account for college even though some of them entered the work force earlier, if they could find a job.
There were 3.56 million people born in the US in 1949. 85 % or 3.026 million are alive.
There were 4.08 million people born in 1992. Probably at least 4 million still alive.
Let’ assume that all of the people who turn 65 next year retire.
That is still a net gain of about a million potential workers.
As we all know, all of those people do not stop working unless they cannot find a job.
From the CBO.
“The resulting rise in the projected rates of labor force participation for older people is noteworthy. For men ages 62 to 64, CBO projects that the rate of labor force participation will rise from about 52 percent in 2012 to about 55 percent in 2022. For men ages 65 to 69, the projected rate rises from about 37 percent in 2012 to about 41 percent in 2022. The changes for women are similar: The projected rate of labor force participation for women ages 62 to 64 rises from about 44 percent to about 48 percent, and for women ages 65 to 69, the projected rate increases from about 28 percent to about 32 percent. In 2022, the FRA will be 67 only for people age 62 or younger in that year. As that group ages and the FRA gradually becomes 67 for all older people, CBO projects that the labor force participation rate for older people will continue to increase, although at a slower pace.”
Citizen WElls 