May 2010 Unemployment
[Guest post by DRJ]
In today’s post on the unemployment numbers, I have news to please everyone. First the good news from CNN:
“The nation’s unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent in May, the Labor Department reported Friday.”
Then the bad news:
“Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the unemployment rate dropped to 9.7% via the introduction of 431,000 non-farm jobs. We all knew that census hiring would pump up the the employment stats a bit, but we were expecting it would account for about 80% of the total. Hah! How do you like 95%!!”
And last the worst news:
“The hundreds of administration-approved press releases can’t hide the true scale of the unfolding economic disaster. More Americans are unemployed than ever, they are unemployed longer, and if you don’t count temporary Census jobs and the BLS’ mathematical skulduggery, the gravity of the situation becomes obvious.
Consider the makeup of the official “431,000 jobs added” number (and never mind the fact that some were touting an expectation of 700,000 new jobs):
• 411,000 were census jobs
• 31,000 were temporary help services (BP clean-up hires?)
• 215,000 jobs were “created” using the BLS “birth-death” mathematical modelIf you remove the 657,000 temporary and formula jobs from the reported 431,000 jobs added, you’re left with a stunning stat:
The economy actually lost 226,000 jobs last month.
And 322,000 folks stopped looking for jobs, which seems to have helped drop the unemployment number as well.”
Then again, maybe the worst news is the Dow was down over 300 points in response to these job numbers.
— DRJ
They need to have more parties at the WH. All those census workers can get jobs as caterers and cooks. Unless the Obama’s have run out of celebrities they want to expose their kids to.
MU789 (ae19c9) — 6/4/2010 @ 1:27 pmMaybe Obama can spin the Deepwater spill into a jobs program. Then we just have to subsidize oil spills and the recession is over, pronto!
Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 6/4/2010 @ 1:36 pm“President Barack Obama said Friday that the economy’s addition of 431,000 jobs in May is another sign that an economic recovery is underway…”
What a load of absolute crap. Obama’s BS is astonishing in its gall and its patent dishonesty.
SPQR (26be8b) — 6/4/2010 @ 2:08 pmThe Stimulus Worked! NOT
I can’t wait until Obama’s health care reform starts adding the jobs Granny McRictusBotoxface promised!
daleyrocks (1d0d98) — 6/4/2010 @ 3:47 pmAll we have to do is have a census every 3 months, and we can employ a whole bunch of people.
Last month’s job report was good, but short-lived. This month’s is just plain awful.
Some chump (967a70) — 6/4/2010 @ 8:05 pmIt seems very odd that the census would need so many new, untrained workers so far into the project. I filled out my census form and mailed it in months ago, and I’ve heard rumors that workers have been fired and then re-hired just to pad the “new job” numbers reported by the Department of Labor.
Mkelley (02b9d9) — 6/4/2010 @ 10:04 pm