Posted by
grad_1986 on Friday, February 05, 2010 12:53:56 PM
Announced today, the unemployment rate in the US dipped to 9.7% in December and the White House is dancing and singing "Happy days are here again!" But pardon my lack of enthusiasm, but this is coming from the same administration that can't seem to figure out it thousands, 10's of thousands or millions of jobs have been "saved or created" by the so-called stimulus plan. This is also the same administration that put together a web-site to track the stimulus money and how it was being spent and saving/creating jobs only to find out that many of the congressional-districts on the web-site don't even exist and that $1500 lawn mowers are saving 100 jobs (wow! must be some lawn mower).
I wrote a blog several months ago detailing how and why the government UNDER reports the inflation rate in our country. The same goes for the unemployment rate. We never get a real picture of what is really going on. Lets take for example people who are NOT included in the unemployment rate.
First of all there are the people who STOP looking for a job altogether. They have given up looking for a job. I was unemployed for 2 months in 1989 after the Massachusetts Miracle turned into a Nightmare. I collected unemployment compensation for 6 weeks and each time I went I had to ask the question: "Did you actively look for a job this past week?" Of course for me the answer was always YES. But had I answered the question "NO" they I technically would not be added into the unemployment figure because the unemployment number ONLY counts people looking for a job.
Second, the unemployment figure does not count people taking low-wage jobs to fill in while they are still looking for a real job that meets their needs. For example, I might take a part-time job at Taco-Bell to at least put food on the table while still looking for a sales job at the local car dealers. Technically I am employed, but in reality I am under-employed. Will I be able to own a home and put my kids through college on a Taco-Bell income? Absolutely not! But as far as the Department of Labor (DoL) is concerned, I am employed and should not be counted.
Third, I may be considered "self-employed". For example, if I am an out of work carpenter, I could be doing work on my own helping people fix up their houses for sale. The DoL has always had a difficulty with how to include or exclude the self-employed. Are they working? Yes.... sort of.
What is needed is a NEW figure or figures to measure our countries employment health. Statistics is a difficult subject and all too often too much is pushed into a single number like the unemployment rate. In reality its not the employment number that matters anyway. What really matters is what people are earning. If you have stopped looking for a job you are earning 0 dollars. If you have taken a part-time job at Taco-Bell you are earning $8000/year. If you are doing odd jobs as a carpenter, you still need to file quarterly-tax records showing your earnings (much less than what you were getting when you were building 5000 square-foot mansions of course). These are the figures we need? Not the unemployment number we are given every month.
And finally who here believes that it was the stimulus bill that brought down the unemployment rate and not that little know holiday called.... CHRISTMAS! The unemployment historically ALWAYS goes DOWN during the month of December. DUH! Sorry for raining on your parade Mr. President, but the numbers don't mean anything to us anymore. What matters is money in our pockets.