August 3, 2012

Blowing jobs numbers..

Well, there were 163,000 jobs added in July -- or so the gummint BLS tells us. It's a good news/bad news proposition, however. Firstly, if the numbers can be believed, this is supposedly good as it represents a figure above what had been widely anticipated: around 75,000.Moreover, the more recognizable unemployment rate went from 8.2% to 8.3%. This figures to be bad -- in the short run -- for a fumbling and inept POTUS and his lackluster crew of faculty-lounge rejects. Also,from that point on, it all goes down hill. Ed Morrissey, over at Hot Air describes the down-side:
However, there is more bad news than good. July saw a slight move up in U-6, which had been coming down earlier in the year to the mid-14 range. That measure of un/underemployment has now risen to 15.2%, increasing in both adjusted and unadjusted measures. It’s the highest rating in this measure since February, and it’s now up more than a full point since April.

The workforce lost 150,000 people last month, after adding 156,000 in June. The civilian-participation rate dropped a tenth of a point to almost hit the 30-year low again it reached in April. The measure of people not in the workforce jumped by 348,000, which may be why the jobless rate only went up a tenth of a point.
I grew tired of piecing this number together month after month, so I sought a way to put it all into perspective without lefty or righty spin and I came up with the BLS URL for these monthly job creation numbers for the past decade or so.


Reviewing these above, I came to the following conclusions:

  1. The first year Obama was in office (with Reid and Pelosi at the controls of the Congress, 2009, the economy LOST and average of 422,000 jobs per month.
  2. In 2010, it only gained an average of 86,000 per month.
  3. In 2011, it averaged 153,000 per month.
  4. And so far this year, job creation it has tailed off precipitously after January and February (at over 250,000 per month each), to average 151,000 — which includes this month’s spike upward. 
..and the inevitable interrogatory: “It worked”(?)

I will leave further analysis to you but, ere I part, would add this troubling graphic (at least for The Pantload POTUS) from the WaPo blog. It proportionally depicts job creation from past administrations through the present. Note that Obama's little slice of this sheet cake is the sliver on the bottom right.



UPDATE: Hot Air commenter ITGuy adds this screed and his analysis -- for a little more perspective:
It was the Democrats who drove the economy into the ditch, including Senator Obama who was a Senator in the minority in 2005-6, a Senator in the majority 2007-8, and a top recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac campaign contributions.

It wasn’t the Bush Tax Cuts that tanked the economy. It was the Democrats’ reckless, irresponsible, and likely criminal handling of Fannie/Freddie the created the sub-prime mortgage crisis that tanked the economy. And his crony capitalist Stimulus made things WORSE, not better.

And let’s not forget that in early January 2009, Obama specifically asked President Bush to request the second half of the TARP money. Bush got all of the blame, but Obama got half of the TARP money.

The 2003 Bush Tax Cuts turned the economy around and added over 8 million jobs in 4 years, and even though tax rates went DOWN, revenues went UP… FY 2007 receipts were 44% LARGER than FY 2003 receipts.

It was the policies and practices of Democrats that drove the economy into the ditch and have kept it in the ditch for the last three years.

What did Obama and the Democrats “inherit” when they took majority control?

Due to the policies of George W. Bush and the Republican majorities in the House and Senate, on January 3, 2007 Obama and the Democrats “inherited” an Employment-population ratio that was 63.4%. (December 2006 number)

By September 2009, the Democrat majority had driven that down to 58.7%, and it has not been above that number since. We’re currently at 58.4% and the Obama administration thinks that is “good news”.

ITguy on August 3, 2012 at 10:16 AM

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