Unemployment Rate Drops to 8.1%

By Douglas V. Gibbs

I predicted that by November the democrats would be working to get the unemployment rate below 8%. The Democrats need it to be if they are to have a chance to win the election, and through manipulation of the numbers, and a few well placed lies, the unemployment rate continues to drop.

The unemployment rate just dropped from 8.3% to 8.1%. The Obama administration wants you to jump for joy when they tell you that they have created 4.5 million jobs. First of all, that number is not true. Second of all, even if it was, it means nothing when you consider at least 12.5 million Americans are currently out of work.

The U.S. economy has actually created 415,000 private sector jobs (a far cry from a million, much less four and a half million), while the size of the labor force itself has shrunk dramatically. At 63.5%, the labor force participation rate is at its lowest since 1981.  What is happening is that after using up their unemployment insurance, and still not finding a job, these people are no longer counted as unemployed. This administration is only counting people receiving unemployment insurance, so as people's unemployment runs out, and they fall off the rolls, it actually helps the unemployment rate because they are no longer listed as unemployed by the Obama administration. The percentage of people participating in the labor force dropped by 0.2%, the same amount the unemployment rate dropped.

So, more Americans are out of work, the democrats are claiming they are creating millions of jobs and that the unemployment rate is getting better. Then, while people are struggling, still not working, and now many of them without unemployment insurance, Obama's team wants to raise taxes.

At the beginning of the year if the democrats refuse to prevent the expiration of the Bush tax rates, with 12.5 million Americans already out of work, the damage to the economy will be catastrophic.

The Bush tax rates are set to expire the first of the year, and the democrats have already said they will not extend the rates. The change in the tax rates across the board would then be the largest tax increase in American history, slamming Americans with a devastating tax hike that would hit businesses, families, and young people, and is calculated by the Heritage Foundation to hit a middle-class family of four by more than $4,100 just next year. [Taxmageddon]

The tax increase the democrats are planning would plunge us deeper into recession, shrink the economy, and push the unemployment rate above 9% (and the U-6 could rise to nearly 20%)

In real numbers, it would mean roughly 1.6 million more Americans will be out of work.

They want you to be excited about an unemployment rate getting closer to dipping below 8%, while planning on taxing you to the hilt and slamming the private sector and economy with massive job losses and an unemployment rate rising back to where it was during the early portion of Obama's presidency.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

The Fake Unemployment Number of 8.6% (December 2011) - Political Pistachio

Obama's Dismal Jobs Record - Heritage Foundation