September Jobs Picture, Sad

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the September Employment Situation looks like this.

All you will hear about it from Secretary Clinton and President Obama, and their spokespeople in the media, is three blurbs . . .

  • Unemployment rate 5.0,
  • 156,000 jobs created,
  • and nn of consecutive months of job growth.

Not sure how many number of consecutive months it has been, but it doesn’t matter, because it amounts to a net job loss.

To put the numbers you hear and see from the administration into perspective, realize that a monthly job creation of 250,000 is considered to be a break-even number when retirements, deaths, and population growth (births, immigration) are factored.

For September 2016, 156,000 jobs were created. Far short of break-even. Aside from that, and even worse, 284,000 jobs were lost in September. Of the 156,000 jobs created, 30,000 of them were in the foodservice industry.

Compared to last year, 1.8 million people were not counted. Of that group, 553,000 of those were in September 2016. Any thinking person might wonder how the employment rate can be 5% (Table A) when there are more people not working? Fair question. But the media never worries about that. The way the BLS arrives at that low percent is because they don’t count the millions of people who haven’t been working so long that their unemployment benefits have run out. They didn’t die. They’re still unemployed. If they were included, the REAL unemployment rate is 9.7 %. It’s called the U-6, (Table A-15).

When you dig deeper into the statistics, you come across a “MULTIPLE JOBHOLDERS” category, (Table A-16). These are people who have a second (or more) jobs because they have to and are able to, just to support themselves and their family. That number increased by 549,000 for Sept 2016 over LY. The dirty little secret about the multiple jobholders stat is, the second or third job that they get is counted as a “job created.” It’s still one person. Keep that in mind when you hear Barack or Hillary tout the number of jobs created. Makes me wince at their dishonesty when I hear them.

The Labor Participation Rate remains at 62.9%. That is the level it was under the Great Malaise administration of Jimmy Carter.

This is Obamanomics. We are living the consequences of Obamanomics. It’s more like, Trickle Up Poverty.

If you think it’s time for a different approach to job creation, one that will actually create more high-paying jobs, your choice in November can only be Donald Trump.

Link: Employment Situation Summary