Unemployment is Rampant no matter what Bush tells you

When the most recent unemployment numbers came out they had an aroma about them that spoke of being over cooked. While apathy still reigns in a vast number of Americans on such things as appointing extremists to the Supreme Court, or allowing Bush to wiretap our phones, the public remains realisticly pessimistic about the economy. I found those numbers that said that unemployment has dropped sounded like a lot of bull so I started poking around.

The export and import-competitive sectors of the US economy have been tanking for a long time. To keep the story manageable, let’s just go back to January 2001. The latest BLS payroll jobs report says that January 2006 is now the 61st month that the US economy has been unable to create any jobs except jobs in domestic nontradable services, most of which are low paid. Of the 194,000 private sector jobs created in January, 46,000 were in construction (and most likely went to Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal) and 136,000 were in domestic services: Financial Activities (essentially credit agencies) account for 21,000. Administrative & Waste Services account for 17,600. Health Care & Social Assistance account for 37,500. Waiters, Waitresses and Bartenders account for 31,000. Wholesalers account for 15,100.

Oh, that’s just the beginning…

In his rosy jobs report,[New York Times reporter] Vikas Bajaj does let it out of the bag that “economists estimate that the nation needs to add roughly 150,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth.”That translates into 1,800,000 new jobs per year to stay even with population. Over the past 61 months 9,150,000 new jobs were necessary in order to prevent population growth from pushing up the unemployment rate.

How many new jobs have been created over the past five years and one month? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest revisions, a total of 1,054,000 net new private sector jobs were created over the past 61 months (January 2001 through January 2006). Add the total net government jobs created over the period for a total net job creation of 2,093,000 jobs over the past 61 months.

That figure is 7,057,000 jobs short of keeping up with population growth!

What about manufacturing jobs? Well apparently there were 7,000 created in January, but total number of jobs is 48,000 less in ’06 than in January ’05. Manufacturing engineering jobs have been bleeding out since 2001.

Here’s the real kicker. January’s official unemployment rates are supposedly at 4.7%… most economists consider an unemployment rate of 4.7% to be FULL EMPLOYMENT!!!

How can the economy possibly be at full employment if the economy is 7 million jobs short of keeping up with population growth!

Bush’s recovery is so anemic it’s hard to find:

Wages are up by the smallest amount in 9 years, people in this country are saving at the same rate as during the Great Depression, and the more jobs that are lost, the more Bush claims the opposite.

The only ones benefitting from this economy are the corporations and the rich. On top of that, consider that more and more people are falling below the poverty line. That means that more and more families are qualifying for government programs… those very same programs that Bush wants to cut or eliminate. More and more families are loosing their homes, their jobs, their lives. How many of these families will end up homeless because of Bush’s economic disaster? Could eventually be millions.

Bush wants you to believe that the US is currently at “Full Employment”. He wants you to believe that housekeeping jobs and flinging burgers for poverty wages and no benefits are dream jobs. The US economy is just another Big Lie. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick to death of being lied to, abused and used by Bush. Where the hell is the media on this? Oh, I forgot, they’re all licking Bush’s soiled boots. This is population abuse.

Job Disinformation From The New York Times
Leading Conservative attacks Bush on economy
Economic Policy Institute graph on jobless recovery.
Home forclosures are creeping up in North Carolina, California, Massachusetts, Texas, and everywhere else. The ownership society, my ass.
Here’s a link to download pdf file “Missing Inaction:
Evidence of Undercounting of Non-Workers
in the Current Population Survey,” which is a great rundown on how the numbers are cooked beyond recognition. Thanks to Kamakhya, who reminded me of this report.