Category Archives: Unemployment

John B. Taylor house testimony February 11, 2014, Poor economic performance and job growth, Unemployment drop due to labor force dropouts, Failed Fed policies, Committee on Financial Services

Posted on February 11, 2014 | 87 comments

John B. Taylor house testimony February 11, 2014, Poor economic performance and job growth, Unemployment drop due to labor force dropouts, Failed Fed policies, Committee on Financial Services

“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

“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 Testimony Before The Committee on Financial Services United States House of Representatives February 11, 2014, John B. Taylor

“Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy”

 

“The Current Economic Situation

Recently released data indicate that the U.S. economy continues to underperform, with the recovery from the deep 2007-09 recession looking as disappointing as ever. Real GDP growth has been too slow to close the gap between real GDP and its pre-recession trend, even incorporating the temporary pickup near the end of last year.1 Job growth has been too slow to
raise employment relative the population, leaving the employment-to-population ratio below the recession low.2 While the unemployment rate has declined recently, much of the decline is due to an unusually large number of people dropping out of the labor force because of the weak recovery.3 It is good news that the inflation rate has averaged very close to the Fed’s 2 percent
goal during the past decade, but by any measure the performance of the real economy has deteriorated compared to the previous two decades.

I have argued that the main cause of the poor performance is a significant shift in economic policy away from what worked reasonably well in the decades before. Broadly speaking, monetary policy, regulatory policy, and fiscal policy each became more discretionary, more interventionist, and less predictable starting in the years leading up to the financial crisis and have largely remained in that mode.4

There is an obvious empirical correlation between this shift in economic policy and the poor economic performance. But it is more than a correlation: A significant body of economic research predicts that such a shift would result in poorer performance, a prediction that is confirmed by historical experiences from the 1970s to the 1980s and 1990s and by empirical studies of specific policy actions. Moreover, this “policy is the problem” explanation fits the
facts better than alternative views that there has been a secular stagnation due to a persistent decline in the normal real interest rate or that weak recoveries normally follow deep recessions.”
“Though the intention of the majority of those at the Fed in favor of the policies was to stimulate the economy, there is little evidence that the policy has helped economic growth or job growth. Growth has been less with the unconventional policies than the Fed originally forecast. In the year since QE3 gained full steam at the end of 2012, interest rates on long-term Treasuries and mortgage backed securities have risen rather than fallen as was the intent of the policy.
Before quantitative easing, from 2003 to 2008, the average spread between one year and ten year Treasury securities was 1.3%. During the three quantitative easing programs, from 2009 through 2013 the average spread was 2.4%. So it is very hard to establish that QE reduced spreads.”

Read more:

Click to access HHRG-113-BA00-WState-JTaylor-20140211.pdf

 

 

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

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Obama media BLS jobs spin exceeds big brother of “1984”, 2.870 million real actual jobs lost in January, Global warming or harsh winter?, George Orwell understated coming lies

Posted on February 10, 2014 | 52 comments

Obama media BLS jobs spin exceeds big brother of “1984”, 2.870 million real actual jobs lost in January, Global warming or harsh winter?, George Orwell understated coming lies

“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

“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″

George Orwell painted a picture of what he had seen from totalitarian regimes and what he envisioned could come. He understated what we experience today.

From “1984.”

“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.

As soon as Winston had dealt with each of the messages, he clipped his speakwritten corrections to the appropriate copy of The Times and pushed them into the pneumatic tube. Then, with a movement which was as nearly as possible unconscious, he crumpled up the original message and any notes that he himself had made, and dropped them into the memory hole to be devoured by the flames.

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.”

From Zero Hedge February 9, 2014.

“Much has been said about the January Non-farm payrolls number, which rose by 113K on expectations of a 180K increase, most of which has been focused on the US atmospheric conditions during the winter. There is a problem with those numbers: they don’t really exist (as for the non-impact of “the weather” on jobs we showed previously that the number of people “not at work due to weather” as calculated by the BLS itself. this winter was lower than 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 – so much for historic winter weather).

So what really happened in January?

For the real answer we have to go to the BLS’ non-seasonally adjusted data series. It is here that we find that in January, some 2.870 million real, actual jobs were lost, not gained. Putting this further in perspective, the number of NSA jobs losses in January 2014 was greater than in January of 2013, 2012, 2011 and tied that of 2010. In fact only during the peak of the depression in January 2009 was there a greater NSA drop in the first month of the year when 3.691 million jobs were lost.”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-09/about-those-29-million-jobs-lost-january

Let’s cut through the crap.

From the US Labor dept. BLS.

In January of 2009 when Obama took office there were 80,529,000 not in the labor force.

In January of 2014 there were 91,455,000  not in the labor force.

Look it up for yourself.

http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab1.htm

The government and media use the weather as an excuse when it is convenient.

Harsh winter or global warming.

More crap.

52 Comments

Posted in 1984, Barack Obama, Big Brother, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Jobs, Lies, media, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Orwell, Orwellian, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

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Jobless claims of 331k shows labor market improvement?, Market Watch claims, Challenger Gray & Christmas January job cuts surge, ADP Jan job creation plunges, Labor force plummets

Posted on February 6, 2014 | 17 comments

Jobless claims of 331k shows labor market improvement?, Market Watch claims, Challenger Gray & Christmas January job cuts surge, ADP Jan job creation plunges, Labor force 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

“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″

 

 

 

Is the primary function of Market Watch to keep people throwing money into the financial markets, prop up Obama or both?

From Market Watch February 6, 2014.

“Jobless claims show labor-market improvement”

“The number of people who applied to receive unemployment benefits in the last week of January fell by 20,000, reversing the increase from the week before and signaling that the U.S. labor market continues to gradually improve.

Initial jobless claims fell to a seasonally adjusted 331,000 in the seven-days ended Feb. 1 from a revised 351,000 in the prior week, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims from two weeks ago were 3,000 higher than previously reported.

Economists polled by MarketWatch had expected claims to total 337,000.”

Read more:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jobless-claims-drop-20000-to-331000-2014-02-06?link=MW_home_latest_news

From the US Labor Dept. February 6, 2014.

“In the week ending February 1, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 331,000, a decrease of 20,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 351,000. The 4-week moving average was 334,000, an increase of 250 from the previous week’s revised average of 333,750.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 2.3 percent for the week ending January 25, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 25 was 2,964,000, an increase of 15,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 2,949,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,985,500, an increase of 25,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 2,959,750.”

Read more:

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/ui/current.htm

From Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. February 6, 2014.

“FOR RELEASE AT 7:30 A.M. ET, FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Job Cuts Surge 47% to Kick Off 2014

EMPLOYERS PLAN 45,107 JOB CUTS; RETAILERS LEAD PACK AS HOLIDAY SALES DISAPPOINT

CHICAGO, February 6, 2014 – After falling to a 13-year low in December, monthly job cuts surged nearly 50 percent to kick off 2014, as U.S.-based employers announced plans to reduce their payrolls by 45,107 in January, according to the latest report on monthly job cuts released Thursday by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.

The 45,107 job cuts last month were 47 percent higher than a December total of 30,623, which was the lowest one-month total since 17,241 planned layoffs were announced in June 2000. January job cuts were up 12 percent from the same month a year ago, when 40,430 job cuts were recorded.

The heaviest downsizing activity occurred in retail, where poor earnings led to a wave of job cut announcements from several national chains, including Macy’s, Sam’s Club, JC Penney, Sears, Best Buy and Target. Overall, retailers announced 11,394 job cuts in January; a 71 percent increase from the 6,676 retail cuts tracked in January 2013. Last month’s retail cuts were the heaviest for the sector since last March, when 16,445 planned layoffs were announced.
“Holiday sales gains were relatively weak and many retailers achieved the gains by slashing prices on their products, which adversely impacted their year-end earnings. The post-holiday job-letting in the sector was inevitable,” said John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
“Retail employment will, in fact, fall further than the announced job cuts indicate. Starting in January, retailers started shedding the tens of thousands of temporary seasonal workers hired to help handle the holiday rush. The announced job cuts, on the other hand, will impact full-time, permanent workers in the stores and at the corporate offices of these struggling chains,” he added.”

Read more:

http://www.challengergray.com/press/press-releases

From Zero Hedge February 5 2014.

“ADP Plunges In January To 175K; Biggest Miss Since August; December Revised Lower: “Cold, Storms” Blamed”

“Earlier today, we predicted with absolute accuracy what today’s joke of an ADP print would be:

And sure enough, the January ADP print missed as we expected, printing at 175K vs the expected 185K, while the December 238K was revised lower to 227K, confirming that ADP is nothing but an NDP trend follower and an absolutely worthless and meaningless data point that does nothing to add relevant data to the economic picture.

For those who care, this was the biggest miss since August and the largest monthly drop since August 2012, and the weakest print since August as well.”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-05/adp-plunges-january-175k-biggest-miss-august-december-revised-lower

The labor force participation has plummeted since Obama took office.

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

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US economic growth myth slammed by Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker, GDP growth continues at 2 percent, Consumer spending moderate trend, Businesses reticent to hire and invest

Posted on February 4, 2014 | 9 comments

US economic growth myth slammed by Richmond Fed president Jeffrey Lacker, GDP growth continues at 2 percent, Consumer spending moderate trend, Businesses reticent to hire and invest

“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

“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 Zero Hedge February 4, 2014.

“Fed’s Lacker Slams Permabulls, Pours Cold Water On The US “Growth Story””

“Unlike the other Fed presidents who are all too happy to lie in order to instill some confidence in a centrally-planned economy and market, not realizing that by doing so they hurt their own credibility, non-voting member Jeffrey Lacker and president of the Richmond Fed has a different approach – telling the truth. Which is why we read his just released speech this morning with interest since once again, it contains far more truth and honesty than anything else the FOMC releases. Sure enough, it has enough fire and brimstone to put even fringe bloggers to shame.

First, just as we have been warning for the past two quarters, all US growth was on the back of inventory – a trend which everyone now realizes is unsustainable. So does Lacker:

Economists’ hopes have been bolstered of late by a recent string of data releases indicating that 2013 ended on a positive note. Second-half growth in real GDP — our broadest measure of overall economic activity — was stronger than we’ve seen in quite some time. While that figure was boosted significantly by inventory accumulation that is unlikely to persist, there was some evidence of momentum that might carry forward.

That evidence, however, is on the back of a consumer who may or may not be back and spending freely once more. To Lacker, it is “may not”:

… It’s no surprise that credit is no longer available on the same terms. And it’s no surprise that consumers have been paying off debt and building up savings in order to restore some sense of balance to their household finances. These developments appear to have contributed to a persistent cautiousness in household spending. Over the last three years, real consumer spending has increased at an annual rate of 2.1 percent. Although consumption grew rapidly at the end of last year, we have seen similar surges since the last recession, only to see spending return to a more moderate trend. Consumer spending trends are likely to depend on whether the dramatic events of the last few years are only a temporary disturbance to household sentiment or if they instead represent a more persistent shift in attitudes about borrowing and saving. At this point, I am inclined toward the latter view.

Next, Lacker slams the permabulls and their perpetual optimism that an improvement is just around the corner:

Many forecasters are citing the recent surge as support for projections of sustained growth at around 3 percent starting later this year. It’s worth pointing out, however, that this has been true at virtually every point in this expansion. In other words, ever since the recovery began, most forecasters have been expecting the economy to pick up speed in the next couple of quarters with the easing of headwinds that have been temporarily restraining growth. My own forecasts (at least initially) followed this script as well.

 

Despite these perennial hopes, the actual results have been more modest. Real GDP grew by 2.0 percent in 2011, 2.0 percent in 2012 and 1.8 percent for the first half of 2013. This record of relatively steady but modestly paced expansion, despite forecasts of an imminent increase in growth, helps motivate the more cautious economic outlook that I will share with you today.

Hoping that this is finally the year in which that long overdue CapEx spending will finally take place (and which is being halted by none other than the Fed as we explained nearly two years ago)? Don’t.

Businesses also appear to be quite reticent to hire and invest. A widely followed index of small business optimism fell sharply during the recession and has only partially recovered since then. Interestingly, when small business owners were asked in the latest survey about the single most important problem they face, 20 percent answered “government regulations and red tape.” This observation accords with reports we’ve been hearing from many business contacts for several years now.They’ve seen a substantial increase in the pace of regulatory change and a substantial increase in uncertainty about the shape of new regulations. Both are said to discourage new hiring and investment commitments.”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-04/feds-lacker-slams-permabulls-pours-cold-water-us-growth-story

 

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Jobs, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama taxes, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

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Obama omits 32 stark facts from speech, Real state of the union, These stats don’t lie, Whose economy improving?, Increased poverty food stamps, Labor force plummets

Posted on January 31, 2014 | 139 comments

Obama omits 32 stark facts from speech, Real state of the union, These stats don’t lie, Whose economy improving?, Increased poverty food stamps, Labor force 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

“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″

Whose economy is improving?

Yours on main street?

From The Economic Collapse January 29, 2014.

“32 Statistics That Obama Neglected To Mention During The State Of The Union Address”

” On Tuesday evening, Barack Obama once again attempted to convince all of us that things have gotten better while he has been in the White House.  He quoted a few figures, used some flowery language and made a whole bunch of new promises.  And even though he has failed to follow through on his promises time after time, millions upon millions of Americans continue to believe him. ”

“The following are 32 statistics that Obama neglected to mention during the State of the Union address…
“#1 According to a recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, only 28 percent of all Americans believe that the country is moving in the right direction.

#2 In 2008, 53 percent of all Americans considered themselves to be “middle class”. In 2014, only 44 percent of all Americans consider themselves to be “middle class”.

#3 In 2008, 25 percent of all Americans in the 18 to 29-year-old age bracket considered themselves to be “lower class”. In 2014, an astounding 49 percent of them do.

#4 Right now there is approximately a billion square feet of vacant retail space in the United States.

#5 There are 46.5 million Americans that are living in poverty, and the poverty rate in America has been at 15 percent or above for 3 consecutive years. That is the first time that has happened since 1965.

#6 Barack Obama says that the unemployment rate has declined to 6.7 percent, but if the labor force participation rate was at the long-term average it would actually be approximately 11.5 percent, and it has stayed at about that level since the end of the last recession.

#7 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the number of Americans on food stamps has gone from 32 million to 47 million.

#8 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the percentage of working age Americans that are actually working has declined from 60.6 percent to 58.6 percent.

#9 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the average duration of unemployment in the United States has risen from 19.8 weeks to 37.1 weeks.”

Read more:

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/32-statistics-that-obama-neglected-to-mention-during-the-state-of-the-union-address

139 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Jobs, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

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Greensboro News Record protects Obama punishes Governor Pat McCrory, Glaring example of media bias, Obama SOTUS unemployment, NC unemployment, Baby boomers blamed again, Sloppy reporting or lies?

Posted on January 29, 2014 | 27 comments

Greensboro News Record protects Obama punishes Governor Pat McCrory, Glaring example of media bias, Obama SOTUS unemployment, NC unemployment, Baby boomers blamed again, Sloppy reporting or lies?

 
“Greensboro News Record editorial states ‘An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story.’  The News Record should practice what they preach.”…Citizen Wells

“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

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

I suspected that the recent Greensboro News Record reporting on the NC unemployment rate and reasons was an attempt to discredit NC Governor Pat McCrory and his plans to create jobs.

I was ok with the News Record reporting the truth about the drop in the unemployment rate in NC. It was the truth. Mostly due to working age folks dropping out of the labor force.

Too bad the News Record does not apply the same standard to Obama. Instead, they use regurgitated AP lies that attempt to portray the drop in the labor force as mainly due to baby boomers retiring. That lie has been revealed here and at other sites such as Zero Hedge.

From the Greensboro News Record editorial January 28, 2014.

“Fact check on the State of the Union Address”

“An occasional look at political claims that take shortcuts with the facts or don’t tell the full story.”

“REP. CATHY McMORRIS RODGERS of Washington, in her prepared Republican response: “Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the president’s policies are making people’s lives harder.”

THE FACTS: She leaves out a significant factor in the high number of people who aren’t looking for jobs: Baby boomers are retiring.
It’s true that a large part of the still-high unemployment rate is due to jobless workers who have given up looking for a job. There are roughly three people seeking every job opening, a circumstance that can discourage others from trying.
But one big reason people aren’t seeking employment is that there are so many boomers — the generation born in the immediate aftermath of World War II — and therefore more than the usual number of retirements.
As of December, the economy had gained 3,246,000 jobs since Obama took office in January 2009. When he was inaugurated, the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent and on the rise.
It peaked at 10 percent in October 2009 and has been inching down ever since, to 6.7 percent this past December.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/local_news/article_e422165e-888f-11e3-829d-001a4bcf6878.html

From the Greensboro News Record January 28, 2014.

“Report: NC jobless rate falls to 6.9 percent”
“North Carolina’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.9 percent in December, its lowest level in more than five years, but Tuesday’s news came with signals that the rapid fall was related to thousands of discouraged people giving up on finding work.”

“Gov. Pat McCrory and state House Speaker Thom Tills, a fellow Republican from Mecklenburg County, on Tuesday credited tax cuts and fewer business regulations that GOP lawmakers approved this year for sparking an economic comeback.”

“But economists warn the fast fall in the unemployment rate has a lot to do with thousands of jobless workers no longer counted because they have become discouraged about the prospects of finding work and have given up.

Since December 2012, 13,414 more people are on payrolls and more than 124,000 fewer people were listed as unemployed, the report shows. That suggests that just 11 percent of the drop in unemployed workers resulted from the jobless finding work, said Allan Freyer, an analyst with the Budget & Tax Center, a part of the liberal-leaning NC Justice Center.

The state’s population of working-age adults who are looking for jobs also shrank by nearly 111,000 over the year. That means North Carolinians in the working-age population who are either employed or actively looking for jobs is the lowest since before the national recession started in December 2007.
As more people give up on finding work, that makes the unemployment rate look better because they’re no longer being counted, said Patrick Conway, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/news/north_carolina_ap/article_97849be3-1c83-55f3-98a5-fce1d20f1cf5.html

From Zero Hedge January 8, 2014.

“This Chart Is A True Representation Of The Employment Crisis In This Country”

“The civilian labor force in the US has been causing bouts of hand-wringing and head-scratching. It represents the official number of people working or looking for work. It’s what the officialunemployment rate (U-3) is based on. If labor force participation drops – if for whatever reason, millions of people are no longer counted as part of the labor force, as is the case in the US – it’s a troublesome indicator for the economy and the real employment picture.

It also makes the unemployment rate, now 7.3%, look a lot less awful: if you’re not counted in the labor force, and you don’t have a job, you’re not counted as unemployed. There are millions of people in that category. And their numbers are growing, not diminishing.

“The irony of the U-3 unemployment statistic is the fact that while unemployment has gone down 30% since its 2009 peak, we have the lowest labor force participation rate in over 3 decades,” observed Ralph Dillon, Vice President at Global Financial Data, in an email. “The markets and politicians celebrate the official unemployment rate, but you have to be concerned with the trend that is most indicative of the health of the employment situation in this country: the downward trend of those who want to work and can’t.””

“The chart (Global Financial Data) juxtaposes the unemployment rate and the labor force participation rate since 1980. After the financial crisis, suddenly, for the first time in history, they both started moving in lockstep. Downward.

““This chart is a true representation of the crisis of employment in this country,” Dillon wrote. The diminishing labor force participation rate – the officially available labor pool, however unrealistic it might be – has been driving down the unemployment rate for the first time in history.”

People 55 to 64 years old, the first forget-about-retirement generation, are staying in the labor force to an ever greater degree. In 1992, only 56.2% were still in the labor force, in 2012, 64.5% were. Similar for older folks. The participation rate for people 65 to 74 years old jumped from 16.3% to 26.8%. Reality is this: fewer people can afford to retire.

But who is not making it into the labor force? Young folks. The participation rate for those 16 to 19 has plunged from 51.3% in 1992 to 34.3% in 2012. OK, the BLS explains that by an increase in school attendance, and that would be a good thing. But the 25 to 54 year olds? Even among them, participation rates dropped from 83.3% in 2002 to 81.4% a decade later.

Among the 18 to 34 year old “Millennials,” those lucky ones who’re official counted in the labor force, unemployment has been a nightmare, with double digit unemployment rates, still, nearly 6 years after the financial crisis, reported the youth advocacy group Young Invincibles. It’s even worse for the 16 to 24 year olds, whose official unemployment rate is still 15%!”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2014-01-08/%E2%80%9C-chart-true-representation-employment-crisis-country%E2%80%9D

Some common sense from Citizen Wells.

Ignoring facts from the US Government about the trend of retirement aged people working longer, there are more younger people entering the work force age group than would leave if all people turning 65 retired at once.

There are only 85% of those turning 65 still alive.

More people were born in the early nineties than in 1949.

Still not clear?

Read more:

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2014/01/20/labor-force-participation-collapse-from-younger-dropouts-not-retirees-zero-hedge-nails-it-more-younger-people-born-to-replace-older-labor-force-should-be-increasing-not-decreasing/

For their Orwellian misrepresentation of the US unemployment which protects Obama, the Greensboro News Record is awarded 4 Orwells.

Orwells4

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Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Employment, Jobs, Lies, media, NC, News, North Carolina, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, Orwell, Orwellian, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment, US economy

Wisconsin unemployment rate rapidly falling, New jobs being created, $912 million budget surplus, Media ignores Republican governor Scott Walker success, Rush Limbaugh explains

Posted on January 25, 2014 | 83 comments

Wisconsin unemployment rate rapidly falling, New jobs being created, $912 million budget surplus, Media ignores Republican governor Scott Walker success, Rush Limbaugh explains

“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

“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

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed
–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into
history and became truth. “Who controls the past,” ran the
Party slogan, “controls the future: who controls the present
controls the past.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

 

 

The Obama administration has failed to create enough full time jobs while creating record debt and food stamp usage.

Of course the media is ignoring the success of Republican governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

From Rush Limbaugh January 24, 2014.
“Governor Walker’s Wisconsin Earthquake of Conservatism Goes Ignored by Media, GOP”

“RUSH: I need to illustrate a point. Yesterday there was really profound, great news out of the state of Wisconsin. In my mind, earth-shattering news. In my mind, it’s the kind of news that should have caused a political earthquake, and probably did. It’s just that nobody reacted to it. Here you have one of the bluest of blue states. You have a Republican governor, a conservative Reaganesque governor who was targeted twice for removal. They did everything they could to gin up hate, anger, tried to destroy his reputation, his career, and his life.

He hung in there. The state of Wisconsin instituted his policy reforms, deemphasizing the role of unions in the state, and the upshot of it is that Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is rapidly falling, so new jobs are being created there. Wisconsin’s budget is now in surplus $912 million. There is a $1 billion government surplus in the state of Wisconsin. And Governor Scott Walker is going to rebate the money in the form of tax cuts to the people who he said own the money. He’s going to cut income taxes and property taxes, and he made the point that it’s not just a gimmick of budgeting or accounting. It’s the result of serious, significant policy changes.

Now, folks, what I just told you was not reported once anywhere in what you would consider mainstream media. It was not reported on one cable network, much less all of them. It was not reported in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the LA Times. It was reported in Wisconsin. There was an AP story on it, maybe some local papers picked it up, but just as a filler. On all the opinion shows on the Fox News Channel, there was not a syllable of this story discussed. And to me, for us as conservatives, Wisconsin and Governor Walker, I mean, everything that we want to happen, happened there.

We want people to stand up and defend themselves and what they believe, and when they do, we join them and help. We want somebody who believes in conservatism and can articulate it, who gets elected on that basis and then implements it. Everything that we are demanding as voters, everything that you as Tea Party members are demanding, Scott Walker did. The vast majority of everything you want, it’s happening in Wisconsin. A light has been turned on. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, if you will. The path has been illustrated here. Not one mention of this anywhere, that I saw, not one!”

Read more:

Governor Walker’s Wisconsin Earthquake of Conservatism Goes Ignored by Media, GOP

 

 

83 Comments

Posted in 1984, Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Employment, Jobs, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, republicans, Rush Limbaugh, Unemployment

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Obama jobs economy speech lies, Job creation, Health care costs, Deficit, Truth is record labor force participation food stamps deficit part time job creation, Increasing health care costs

Posted on January 22, 2014 | 68 comments

Obama jobs economy speech lies, Job creation, Health care costs, Deficit, Truth is record labor force participation food stamps deficit part time job creation, Increasing health care costs

“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

“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

How do you know when Obama is lying?

When his lips are moving.

From a speech Obama gave on January 7, 2014.

“You know, a few weeks ago I said that 2014 could be a breakthrough year for America. Think about it. Five years ago this month, our economy was shedding 800,000 jobs, just in one month. But as Americans buckled down and worked hard and sacrificed, we began to come back. And our businesses have created more than 8 million new jobs since we hit the bottom. Our auto industry’s gone from bust to boom. Manufacturing’s rebounding. The housing market’s rebounding. Stock markets are restoring retirement accounts. The promise of energy independence is actually in sight. Health care costs eat up less of our economy. Over the past four years, costs have grown at the slowest rate on record. And since I’ve took office, we’ve cut our deficits by more than half.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/transcript-president-obamas-jan-7-remarks-on-unemployment/2014/01/07/79c65704-77bc-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html

Now for the truth.

28,223,000 Americans were on food stamps when Obama took office.

At the end of 2013 there were 47,636,000 Americans on food stamps.

When Obama took office in January 2009 vs December 2013.

Labor Force Participation Rate then 65.7   now  62.8

Employment-Population Ratio then  60.6   now  58.6

Not in Labor Force then  80,529,000 now  91,808,000
Not in Labor Force want a job now then  5,708,000 now 6,111,000
Could only find part time work then 1,671,000 now 2,586,000
From the Independent Journal Review.
“The Poverty President: How Obama’s Economic Policies are a Disaster”
“Since the moment he came into office, President Obama has pursued the same failed liberal policies that extended the Great Depression, instituted the socially corrosive Great Society programs, and has grown government beyond America’s ability to afford it. Estimates of the U.S. long-term unfunded liabilities range from $87 trillion to an astounding $211 trillion.
One of the first measures Obama undertook was passing an ultimately $812 billion “stimulus” program. After glibly admitting that ‘shovel-ready (jobs) was not as shovel-ready as we expected,’ the U.S. is still far off the jobs trajectory projected by his advisers; while it was presumed the U.S. would be near 5% unemployment, we are at 7.3% — and that’s with millions dropping out of the workforce.
Instead of focusing on generating jobs and growing the productive economy, President Obama decided to work with the Democrat Congress to force through a trillion-dollar boondoggle known as ObamaCare against the objections of the majority of Americans.
President Obama said in an ABC News interview in 2009 that if Congress did not pass health care legislation that brought down costs, the federal government “will go bankrupt.” The ten-year cost estimate since then has tripled from $900 billion to nearly $2.7 trillion, and the GAO estimates the program will add $6.2 trillion in debt liability.
The “unintended consequences” of the ObamaCare provision that employers with 50 or more full-time employees at 30 hours a week or more must offer certain health insurance plans has predictably led to small businesses with more part-time employees. While the president has illegally suspended his enforcement of duly passed law, the “employer mandate” provision, full-time hiring is not expected to pick up due to long-term uncertainty.
Nearly 2.5 million of the ‘jobs created’ under President Obama are part-time; as a separate figure, 2.7 million of those ‘jobs created’ are temporary hires — a 50% increase over Obama’s time in office.
The president claims he has created 7.2 million jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 154,526,000 in the Civilian Labor Force in February 2009 and in June 2013 there were 155,835,000. That would be a net gain of 1.309 million more people working civilian jobs as of the latest figures. The labor force participation rate of 63.5% is hovering at the lowest levels since late 1978.
Even if we took this at face value, like a good Democrat loyalist would, this is still less than half the people added to the food stamp rolls — 15 million folks. The escalating gas, electricity, and food prices, as well as the ObamaCare “sticker shock” on health insurance premiums for an estimated 75% of Americans will not ease their budgets. And the AP now estimates that 4 in 5 Americans are in poverty, low-income, or have no jobs.”

Read more:

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/07/69124-the-poverty-president-how-obamas-economic-policies-are-a-disaster/

68 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Health Insurance, Healthcare bill, Jobs, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, ObamaCare, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

Tagged , , , , ,

Labor force participation collapse from younger dropouts not retirees, Zero Hedge nails it, More younger people born to replace older, Labor force should be increasing not decreasing

Posted on January 20, 2014 | 65 comments

Labor force participation collapse from younger dropouts not retirees, Zero Hedge nails it, More younger people born to replace older, Labor force should be increasing not decreasing

“People 55 to 64 years old, the first forget-about-retirement generation, are staying in the labor force to an ever greater degree. In 1992, only 56.2% were still in the labor force, in 2012, 64.5% were. Similar for older folks. The participation rate for people 65 to 74 years old jumped from 16.3% to 26.8%. Reality is this: fewer people can afford to retire.”…Zero Hedge January 8, 2014

“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

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”…George Orwell, “1984″

 

As pointed out at Citizen Wells, there should be an increasing labor force not decreasing. More younger people are born than are left in the aging populations to retire. And older workers are not retiring in droves.

From Citizen Wells November 9, 2013.

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.”

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/washington-post-misrepresents-labor-force-participation-rate-unemployment-rate-blamed-on-baby-boomers-selective-quoting-post-receives-4-orwells/

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.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/09/06/the-incredible-shrinking-labor-force-again/

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.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/11/08/the-u-s-labor-force-is-still-shrinking-rapidly-heres-why/

I am going to make this real simple.

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.”

http://www.cbo.gov/publication/43834

That’s right. You read it correctly.

Men ages 62 to 64:  rate of labor force participation  about 52 percent in 2012.

Men ages 65 to 69:   37 percent in 2012.

Once again I am compelled to award the Washington Post 4 Orwells.

https://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2013/11/09/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-cove/

Zero Hedge nails it again.

“A few days ago we disproved, in what we hoped would be the last time, any insinuation that the collapse in the labor force is due to demographics (a topic we had covered before) when we showed that it was just 10 short years ago that the Bureau of Labor Statistics itself was forecasting an increase in the overall participation rate – here we assume logically that America’s demographic profile was known to its labor market experts in 2004 – only to slowly at first, then very fast, revise it ever lower… and still it was unable to catch up to the unfolding gruesome reality.

Yet somehow, so called finance experts, econ PhDs, central planners and other ivory tower dwellers still refuse to let this topic go, and continue to reference the participation rate and demographics in the same sentence. So to truly end any speculation that the plunge in the labor force is due to “old people”, defined as workers 55 and over, retiring, here is a chart (which in an update of a post we didfirst in October 2012 and it took the rest of the media world only 14 months to catch up) of the cumulative job gains broken down by “young”, or those 16-54, vs “old”, those 55 and over.

Spot something wierd?

It seems that the “old” age worker group – that which is supposed to be bleeding workers to retirement – has had zero job losses since the start of the Depression in December 2007, while it was the “younger” workers who according to the BLS’ Household Survey, have hit the labor cliff and seen their number collapse, dropping as much a 6 million, and only slowly rising, with another 3.5 million jobs left to catch up before pre-recession levels are met.”

Read more:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-01-20/spot-labor-force-collapse-culprit

 

 

 

65 Comments

Posted in Barack Obama, Citizen News, Citizens for the truth about Obama, CitizenWells, Economy, Employment, Jobs, Obama, Obama administration, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, The Case Against Barack Obama, Unemployment

Tagged , , ,

NC employment unemployment truth January 2014, Labor force droputs, Participation rate plummets, Employment spin, Greensboro News Record awarded 2 Murrows

Posted on January 10, 2014 | 62 comments

NC employment unemployment truth January 2014, Labor force droputs, Participation rate plummets, Employment spin, Greensboro News Record awarded 2 Murrows

“You can’t fix a problem unless you acknowledge and understand it.”…Citizen Wells

“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 function of the press is very high. It is almost Holy.
It ought to serve as a forum for the people, through which
the people may know freely what is going on. To misstate or
suppress the news is a breach of trust.”…. Louis D. Brandeis

 

 

It is fitting and proper that I award 2 Murrows to the Greensboro News Record. Edward R. Murrow was born just outside of Greensboro.

I will award more Murrows to the News Record when they report in the same manner on the US unemployment situation and Obama Administration.

From the Greensboro News Record January 7, 2014.

(print edition sub heading)

 

“People dropping out of the labor force might be skewing the decline.”

“The unemployment rate in the Greensboro/High Point metro area is the lowest since late 2008, when the economy began shedding jobs at an alarming rate.

The rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted 7.8 percent in November, the N.C. Department of Commerce reported Tuesday.

That’s a drop of 2.1 percentage points compared with November 2012.

It’s also the lowest rate in five years, when it was 7.9 percent.

But a closer look suggests the Greensboro/High Point metro’s job market may not be as healthy as it seems.

Despite the drop in the unemployment rate, the state’s survey of households suggests the region is adding few jobs.

The number of employed people is virtually unchanged since the end of 2012.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/business/article_2fe50f6a-77ba-11e3-b6a7-0019bb30f31a.html

From the Greensboro News Record editorial January 9, 2014.

“Employment spin”

“After North Carolina cut unemployment benefits last summer, people went out and got jobs.

That’s the compelling story line Republicans are spreading to explain one reason for the state’s rapidly falling unemployment rate. It was 8.9 percent in July, when extended benefits ended and weekly payments decreased, and it declined steadily to 7.4 percent in November.

“Give people incentives to stay home, many will stay home. Give them incentives to work, and many more will work,” Jim Tynan wrote last week for the conservative journal Civitas Review Online.

Is it that simple? Can North Carolina, and the entire country, turn the economy around by cutting off unemployment benefits?”

“It’s not that simple. While more people are working, a much greater number have left the workforce. UNCG economist Andrew Brod noted recently that if the state’s labor force had been as large in November as it was in January, the most recent unemployment rate would have been 9.5 percent instead of 7.4 percent. Harvard economist Lawrence Katz last week said North Carolina’s shrinking labor force accounts for 95 percent of the falling unemployment rate. Job growth accounts for just 5 percent.”

“The bottom line for North Carolina’s economy is jobs. The number is slowly increasing, but the percentage of the state’s population that is employed hasn’t improved. If the problem were as easy to solve as some suggest — cutting off unemployment benefits — North Carolina would be in the fast lane to prosperity.”

Read more:

http://www.news-record.com/opinion/n_and_r_editorials/article_b3407324-78ad-11e3-912e-0019bb30f31a.html

The Greensboro News Record is awarded 2 Murrows.

Murrows2

 

62 Comments

Posted in Economy, Employment, Jobs, NC, North Carolina, Unemployment

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