Bureau of Labor Statistics still on the up and up?
Hasn’t the time arrived to question the integrity of the BLS unemployment figures. Now, the official report hits a low 4.4, yet – granted, from another report – fewer jobs are added than needed just to keep up with population growth in the prime working age group.
But this has been happening month after month, it seems, which means, in theory, more people keep dropping out of the labor force entirely. Something is out of kilter here, and it’s time to start digging. The job creation rate overall has been poor. Historically, people come out of the kitchens and off the couches when the unemployment rate drops – the most public of the employment-related statistics -- and creates legitimate hope of finding a job.
Growth in the workforce – the sum of employed and unemployed looking for a job -- tends to go hand in hand with a low official unemployment rate. So does wage growth as demand for workers meets a smaller supply, yet wage rates are stagnant or declining.
But surely Karl Rove “gets” the fact that the only statistic the simple-minded press can handle is the official unemployment rate, so Bush’s people can get a Chris Matthews to wonder, as he did a few weeks ago, why the American people don’t appreciate how good they have it.
So what’s going on here? The Bush people have no respect for the integrity of independent Federal information reporting. Have they wormed their way into the BLS?
Just asking
But this has been happening month after month, it seems, which means, in theory, more people keep dropping out of the labor force entirely. Something is out of kilter here, and it’s time to start digging. The job creation rate overall has been poor. Historically, people come out of the kitchens and off the couches when the unemployment rate drops – the most public of the employment-related statistics -- and creates legitimate hope of finding a job.
Growth in the workforce – the sum of employed and unemployed looking for a job -- tends to go hand in hand with a low official unemployment rate. So does wage growth as demand for workers meets a smaller supply, yet wage rates are stagnant or declining.
But surely Karl Rove “gets” the fact that the only statistic the simple-minded press can handle is the official unemployment rate, so Bush’s people can get a Chris Matthews to wonder, as he did a few weeks ago, why the American people don’t appreciate how good they have it.
So what’s going on here? The Bush people have no respect for the integrity of independent Federal information reporting. Have they wormed their way into the BLS?
Just asking
posted by KISSWeb | 11:59 AM
1 Comments:
I once had an electric meter was wired incorrectly. The more electricity you used, the slower it ran. If I turned on all the room air conditioners at once, it actually ran backward. My electric bill averaged about $15/mo. Had to be carefull though not to use so much electricity that the monthly bill came out negative. That might have tipped someone off. I think we're getting close to that with the BLS figures. 92K jobs created when 140k or so were needed to keep up with population growth, yet the unemployment rates falls. It's going to be when the number of jobs created is negative and the unemployment rate still falls that someone will take notice. Or, maybe we have to wait for a negative unemployment rate.
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