The “official” unemployment rate (U3) released each month is, to put it in the most straight-forward way possible, a completely misleading and politicized statistic.
The U3 unemployment rate, which is one of 6 ways the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates the amount of people out of work, is defined as the “total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force.”
This is the 4.7% number which came out today and the statistic that soon-to-be former President Barrack Obama has boasted so proudly over.
You remember this, right? …
Obama: “I took an economy that was about to go into a Great Depression, and we’ve now had a little over six years of straight economic job growth, an unemployment rate that’s down below 5 percent, and incomes that have gone up and poverty that has gone down.”
Well, today we found out that a record number of Americans are not in the labor force and are not even looking for a job, the same way it was when Obama first stepped into office.
The final jobs report of Obama’s presidency revealed that the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 14,573,000 (18.09 percent) since January 2009.
In December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 95,102,000 Americans were not in the labor force, 47,000 more than in November.
Hmmm..
They said the unemployment rate was 4.7%! How can that be! The U.S. population is only about 325,340,300 people!
As explained above, the “official” number only calculates the number of unemployed persons as a percent of the civilian labor force.
So, let’s now take the amount of folks who are not in the labor force and get the percentage of the population that this group accounts for. (I’ll use a calculator just so I know Obama never lied to me!)
*GASP
The reality of the unemployment situation inside the U.S. is much more grim than any politician or bureaucrat would ever want to admit.
And just to highlight how bad the situation is, those people counted as “not in the labor force” qualify to be a part of that statistic because they are no longer looking for work.
It is unrevealing statistics like the U3 unemployment rate that allows politicians to grandstand and pose as your leader.
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Joseph Jankowski is a contributor for PlanetFreeWill.com, where this article first appeared. His works have been published by recognizable alternative news sites like GlobalResearch.ca, ActivistPost.com, PrisonPlanet.com and ZeroHedge.com.
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What? Did they lie to us?
Tell me its not so.
The number of people not in the labor force includes children, elderly, medically unable etc. An out of work five year old is not a relevant statistic.
No. Its Adults. However, it does include the elderly and disabled.
This statistic has been around for months, I’ve always read that it is 95M between 18 and 65 years of age. This article FAILS to mention that as you correctly noticed.
An “out of work five year old” is a relevant statistic to whomever has to feed, clothe, and house him or her. When the overall numbers indicate that, overall, on average in America, one person must provide for the survival of three individuals, numbers like these are very relevant. When young people are encouraged to incur education debt, then graduate and find no jobs available, when working people are advised to save for retirement while being warned that the pensions, 401k’s, and SS benefits they’re paying for now won’t be there by the time they retire, these overall numbers are very relevant.
That´s not news. If you look at numbers you can see, that´s is not right. I have comment this problem for year´s. But nobody, have don anything about it. Glad that´s somthing about it.
So the 29.23 stat would include children. o-14= 19.4% and 65+=14.4% so old and young is 33.8% So that leaves 215 million people. Just over 1/3 of the entire US population is actually working.
The figures quoted in this article are just as meaningless as the dodgy govt stats. As other commenters have noted, it’s pointless measuring unemployment against the overall population. The meaningful number is found by measuring the rise or decline in workforce participation numbers. Do you have those stats handy? For an article on the topic of govt lies, damn lies and stats to be so misleading itself is utterly disingenuous. Lift you game Joe or boot off.
In fact Joe, I just checked those stats and the REAL underlying unemployment rate is actually quite clearly stated as U6, which is currently 9.2%. That sounds pretty spot on to me. Obviously some regions and demographic groups would have a much higher unemployment rate. So you’ve deliberately ignored the stats provided in order to give a slanted take on government dishonesty. How ironic.
“Table A-15. Alternative measures of labor underutilization …
U-6 Total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force…. Dec 2016: 9.2%”
Stop working for the fascist corporations.
You only serve the ill gotten life styles of the silver spoon crowd.
Please Think! I would randomly guess that millions do construction for cash, millions clean houses for cash, millions grow weed for cash, and thousands of other jobs are done for cash- lawn mowing, firewood, window cleaning, farm labor, bar bouncers, bike messengers, barbers, snow plowing, tree work, irrigation, …
My completely random guess is that at least 20-30 million people work for cash, I know some. Many have tax debt, alimony, child support etc., and if they payed them they would not have enough for food / rent so they do cash. Lots of retired grandmas can’t afford to pay a contractor $50/hr for home repairs so they pay someone $20/hr cash. Many resort to cash for some months or years until they can get back on their feet and re enter taxed labor, which many want for credit rating and social sec.
Some level of cash work is beneficial to the economy to keep poor/elderly/medically infirm/etc. afloat, alive, out of crime, and keep money circulating, yet too much tax avoidance leads to Greek style debt.
Ive paid taxes for decades, yet sympathize with those who refuse to pay 50-some % of Fed taxes to our bloated incompetent military budget that topples nations, kills civilians, & fuels terrorism worldwide.
I know single moms trying to raise kids on $15K/yr.; they would be stupid to work for $9/hr retail when they can clean houses for $20cash.
So maybe 90M minus 30M cash workers / 325M ttl pop = 18% unemployment ??
In a sane and fair economic system this would not be necessary, but please note: When you say, “Some level of cash work is beneficial…to keep [the] poor…etc. afloat, alive, out of crime…” that this is itself considered criminal. Unreported barter and cash are illegal under IRS tax laws, and if audited and caught you can be fined and/or jailed for engaging in this nefarious activity.
As for your guesstimate numbers, they’re probably fairly close to reality (closer, anyway, than any bogus “official” ones). It stands to reason that nearly 30% of those “not in the work force” aren’t all living off their copious savings, or eating out of dumpsters and sleeping under bridges–although God knows millions in this “great and prosperous land” are, and have been since before the Bush II era of peace and plenty.
The article also fails in that it does not subtract kids and retirees from the 325M population, which I missed in my calc., which further lowers unemployment rates. Still a record 95M ‘able bodied’ between 16 – 65 not participating is a new record, albeit with the largest population ever. So statistically %of pop. of able working age non participants would be a more clear figure to compare. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.
You certainly got that right, and whatever moving-target statistics our well-fed richly-dressed multi-millionaire lying leaders present us with, you can’t feed and clothe your children and parents on statistics–even older folks who PLANNED for their retirement didn’t figure on being ripped off for their pensions, 401ks, “Blue Chip” and fixed income stocks, and all those years of paying into Social Security. They are told there will be no (or negligible) Cost of Living increases, because everything costs “the same” as it did last year…and the year before!
On Mars, perhaps this is true, or whatever planet our selected leaders come from. Just not at our local supermarkets and gas stations, clothing stores and school-supply outlets. Certainly not according to our local tax assessors, doctors, and insurance agents. The cost of living is only the same if you switch from the occasional steak to 80% lean hamburger, from new cars to pre-owned, from air conditioning to swamp coolers, and send your kids to a community college or trade school (if their Common Core education even permits them to make the grade for it).
The bottom line is: America needs real jobs commensurate with America’s actual needs on a national level, and those jobs just aren’t here anymore. Much of the time we’re now living on processed food out of cans, and we don’t even make our own can openers anymore.
We’re being told Americans just don’t want to work in factories, we’re so fat and happy–well, except our kitchen can openers don’t work very well and don’t last very long before we have to run down to the Great Walmart-of-China for a new one…the one my parents inherited from my grandparents lasted my entire childhood…same as our toaster, our refrigerator, our washer and dryer. American made stuff, it cost more, lasted decades. Now even if they’re assembled in America, they’re built out of foreign parts, engineered to hold up for 366.5 days (on a 1-year warranty), and THAT is what Made-in-America companies have to compete with (which is why even if you DO buy American, you get crap).
The bottom line is, whatever the statistics are twisted to say, Americans can’t fend for themselves anymore, on virtually any level definable.
325M pop., 40M retirees, 70M under 18; 325M – 70+40 (110) = 215M age 18-65.
90M nonparticipants – 20M cash workers = 70M ‘unemployed; 70/215=32%
90M – 30M cash workers = 60M / 215 = 27%
Or just 95M / 215M working age = 44% unemployment if the article had subtracted kids/retired from math.
Glad I finally did that, wow the article is not as inflammatory as I thought.
Then $19.5T debt / 325M cit.s = $60K debt for every US person alive.
Then 19.5Tdebt / 215M working age = $90k per working age
Worse 19.5Tdebt / (215M working age – 95M non participants) = $162,500 per contributor, not including repaying the money congress stole from Social Sec and has not repaid.
Then the Pentagon can ‘lose’ (embezzle?) up to $1T per year when we only take in $1.6T/yr. in taxes.
Where will we get the money to invade Iran, Russia, & China??
This cannot end well, maybe I should be a prepper?
This is pretty much common knowledge now.