Saturday, May 03, 2014

Economic Recovery Lie

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The numbers just don't add up.  As we are told we are in a recovery, growth is at its slowest, and joblessness is breaking records.

US economy slowed to 0.1 percent growth rate in Q1

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy slowed drastically in the first three months of the year as a harsh winter exacted a toll on business activity. The slowdown, while worse than expected, is likely to be temporary as growth rebounds with warmer weather.

Growth slowed to a barely discernible 0.1 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That was the weakest pace since the end of 2012 and was down from a 2.6 percent rate in the previous quarter.


Report: More Than 92 Million Americans Remain Out Of Labor Force

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — Despite the unemployment rate plummeting, more than 92 million Americans remain out of the labor force.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.3 percent in April from 6.7 percent in March, the lowest it has been since September 2008 when it was 6.1 percent. The sharp drop, though, occurred because the number of people working or seeking work fell. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not count people not looking for a job as unemployed.

The bureau noted that the civilian labor force dropped by 806,000 last month, following an increase of 503,000 in March.

The amount (not seasonally adjusted) of Americans not in the labor force in April rose to 92,594,000, almost 1 million more than the previous month. In March, 91,630,000 Americans were not in the labor force, which includes an aging population that is continuing to head into retirement.


Women Not in Labor Force Hits Record High

(CNSNews.com) - The number of women 16 and older not in the labor force climbed to a record high of 55,116,000 in April, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

This means that there were 55,116,000 women 16 and older who were in the civilian nonsinstitutional population who not only did not have a job, they did not actively seek one in the last four weeks. That is up 428,000 from the 54,688,000 women who were not in the labor force in March.


Obamanomics: 92 Million Americans Not Working

RUSH: Have you heard about the great economic news? I mean, this is the most amazing -- I'm sorry, folks, I'm going to have to come up with some new descriptors, new descriptives, because I'm running out of them. Most amazing, incredible, unbelievable, stunning, you name it. The US labor force shrunk by more than 800,000 people in April. For those of you in Rio Linda, that means 800,000 people stopped looking for work or quit working. The labor force participation rate declined or decreased to 62%. That is the lowest it has been since 1978. What that means is only 62% of Americans of working age have job.

The number of Americans not working, but eating and watching television, probably driving and making cell phone calls, 92,594,000. So 92,594,000 Americans are not working. They're all eating. "Mr. Limbaugh, what's the big deal about that? We're a compassionate country. When people don't have jobs they should be able to eat." It used to not be that way, Mr. New Castrati. You used to have to work to eat. There's nothing good here, folks.

But despite all of this, the unemployment rate has plunged from 6.7 to 6.3%. That just doesn't make any sense. Well, it does, if you know how they calculate the number. They simply don't count the number of people who have given up trying to find a job. It's that simple. If you've been out of work for four years or longer and you've given up looking, you don't get counted as unemployed. So I don't know what number, but a large percentage of the 92,594,000 Americans not working is not counted in the unemployment rate.

But despite all this, let me review this now. The US labor force shrank by more than 800,000 in April. The labor force participation rate decreased to 62%. That's the lowest it's been since 1978. That means 62% of the people working age have a job. The rest don't, 92.5 million Americans not working. And the regime claims that 280,000 jobs were created in April, and that the unemployment rate has fallen from 6.7 to 6.3%. Never mind that we were told just yesterday that the new unemployment claims have gone up three weeks in a row and economic growth is one-tenth of 1%.

The regime has even revised up the previous two months' job numbers by 36,000 jobs. I don't know how this is possible. We were just told that the first quarter GDP was one-tenth of 1%. None of this adds up. Nobody would suggest that the regime is cooking the books in the run-up to the midterm elections. They would never do that. Except we know that they did do that before the 2012 elections. I mean, that would be like lying about the death of four Americans in order to win an election. They'd never do that. The regime would never lie about how four Americans died just months before an election. They'd never do that, right?

Except that they did.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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