How can the bean-counters make the claim that jobs are being “created”, when previously existing openings are DISAPPEARING at a greater rate than new positions are being offered?
The universe of hiring slots continues to shrink every day, and nobody is willing to take a chance on creating a new opening, because the attendent costs of a new hire, or of maintaining a previously existing opportunity, have risen to the point of making the most cost-effective short-term response available - just don’t hire, or fill the slot once vacated.
Whether the smart boys choose to call this phenomenon by its right name or not, this is not a recession, and hasn’t been one for a while. This is a DEPRESSION. And it affects not merely the US, it is spreading throughout the world. Perhaps, like Japan, we may be able to be poised precariously on the edge, for quite some time, but Japan is in the grips of a strange paralysis, neither able to regain balance, nor quite far enough over center to tumble into the abyss. Europe may not be so fortunate.
Strange, that the Communist country of China has become the banker of the world, and the oil-producing countries have become the brokers of commerce.
Of course, the economy creates jobs. The government destroys jobs. The Obama Administration just ignores the jobs that it destroys and takes credit for any job that any private employer creates despite Administration policies (and all nominally private sector jobs that result from government kickbacks, contracts, and corruption). The number of jobs destroyed but ignored vastly exceeds the number created and touted.
The unemployment rate officially dropped because more Americans quit looking for work: they joined the legions of homeless, starved to death, signed themselves onto the welfare rolls, joined the incarcerated population, or whatever.
In fairness, some people dropped the labor force voluntarily: early retirements and stay-at-home mothers. This latter phenomenon represents a positive development for our country, especially if the mothers in question have gainfully employed husbands.