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Mortimer Zuckerman: Those Jobless Numbers Are Even Worse Than They Look
Wall Street Journal, ^ | September 7, 2012 | Zuckerman

Posted on 09/08/2012 10:20:33 PM PDT by george76

Still above 8%—and closer to 19% in a truer accounting...

Don't be fooled by the headline unemployment number of 8.1% announced on Friday. The reason the number dropped to 8.1% from 8.3% in July was not because more jobs were created, but because more people quit looking for work.

The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form. But when the average period of unemployment is nearly 40 weeks, it is unrealistic to expect everyone who needs a job to keep seeking work consistently for months on end. You don't have to be lazy to recoil from the heartbreaking futility of knocking, week after week, on closed doors.

How many people are out of work but not counted as unemployed because they hadn't sought work in the past four weeks? Eight million. This is the sort of distressing number that turns up when you look beyond the headline number.

...

The key indicator of our employment health, in all the statistics, is what the government calls U-6. This is the number who have applied for work in the past six months and includes people who are involuntary part-time workers—government-speak for those individuals whose jobs have been cut back to two or three days a week.

They are working part-time only because they've been unable to find full-time work. This involuntary army of what's called "underutilized labor" has been hovering for months at about 15% of the workforce. Include the eight million who have simply given up looking, and the real unemployment rate is closer to 19%.

In short, the president's ill-designed stimulus program was a failure

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: jobless; mortimerzuckerman; zuckerman
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1 posted on 09/08/2012 10:20:36 PM PDT by george76
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To: george76

19% is Great Depression or Weimar Republic territory. Why do some polls show Barrack Hussein Obama in the lead in this contest with conditions being what they are? How is he even competitive with Mitt Romney?


2 posted on 09/08/2012 10:26:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: george76
Mortimer Zuckerman was a big Obama supporter in 2008. He has buyers remorse now.
3 posted on 09/08/2012 10:28:11 PM PDT by CaptainK (...please make it stop. Shake a can of pennies at it.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Why do people believe BS polls which utilize BS methodology?


4 posted on 09/08/2012 10:31:07 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks george76.


5 posted on 09/08/2012 10:32:21 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: george76

This is Obama’s Depression with leftwing policies that will extend it until after WW3


6 posted on 09/08/2012 10:34:46 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: george76

If we were all in Unions we we would all have jobs!


7 posted on 09/08/2012 10:38:23 PM PDT by Dallas59 (President Robert Gibbs 2009-2011)
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To: george76

Zuckerman’s an idiot who couldn’t see the obvious stupidity of his supporting Obama.


8 posted on 09/08/2012 10:41:31 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (OWS = The Great American Snivel War)
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To: CaptainK
Mortimer Zuckerman was a big Obama supporter in 2008. He has buyers remorse now.

Zuckerman's disillusionment set in relatively early for someone as "progressive" as he. Example dated 2010-01-19: He's Done Everything Wrong. He concluded:

I can’t predict things two years from now, but if he continues on the downward spiral he is on, he won’t be reelected. In the meantime, the Democrats have recreated the Republican Party. And when I say Democrats, I mean the Obama administration. In the generic vote, the Democrats were ahead something like 52 to 30. They are now behind the Republicans 48 to 44 in the last poll. Nobody has ever seen anything that dramatic.

9 posted on 09/08/2012 10:44:24 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: Psycho_Bunny
Zuckerman’s an idiot who couldn’t see the obvious stupidity of his supporting Obama.

After an article full of damning statistics, his recommendations at the end of the article are just idiotic - "find the money for retraining?" Is that the best he could think of? Spoken like a true, brain-dead Keynsian central-planner. Talk about re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!

10 posted on 09/08/2012 10:48:12 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: george76
The number for August reflects only people who have actively applied for a job in the past four weeks, either by interview or by filling an application form.

These is a small problem with this method, you get a call back on perhaps 5% of the resumes you send out and many companies no longer let you fill out application forms. It is very possible to be hunting actively for work and yet go four weeks with neither of those things happening.

11 posted on 09/08/2012 10:53:15 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Fate plays chess and you don't find out until too late that he's been using two queens all along)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Because the Democrats are excellent LIARS.
12 posted on 09/08/2012 10:58:38 PM PDT by RC one
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To: PGR88

I agree. Exactly what jobs do they want people to train for?

Obama’s stimulus was a complete success if you were one of his friends and donors. They made out quite nicely by my calculations....


13 posted on 09/08/2012 11:01:01 PM PDT by volunbeer (Don't worry America, our kids will pay for it!)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

You are correct! Many of the alleged jobs created are not in reality jobs companies will actually fill. These are positions they “fish” for applicants and collect resumes for possible future positions.

Overqualified for min wage jobs and entry level...yes..oh...over 50 and disabled.....no response (some companies interview just for reporting statistic’s)

The BLS stats are pure rubbish!


14 posted on 09/08/2012 11:07:19 PM PDT by Fully Awake DAV (Navy Vet when homosexuality was not tolerated)
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To: george76

15 posted on 09/08/2012 11:09:43 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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Comment #16 Removed by Moderator

To: CaptainK
Mortimer Zuckerman was a big Obama supporter in 2008. He has buyers remorse now.

He will vote for Ubama again - - take that to the bank.

17 posted on 09/08/2012 11:25:50 PM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: PGR88
After an article full of damning statistics, his recommendations at the end of the article are just idiotic - "find the money for retraining?" Is that the best he could think of? Spoken like a true, brain-dead Keynsian central-planner.

In the end, Mort is still a liberal.

Nary a peep about tax cuts. Though he does allude to reduced regulation...

18 posted on 09/08/2012 11:32:13 PM PDT by okie01 (THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA: Ignorance on parade.)
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To: Fully Awake DAV
...of the 163,000 jobs "added", 429,000 was based on purely statistical fudging.
19 posted on 09/08/2012 11:40:36 PM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

http://www.Indeed.com

http://www.NationsJob.com

http://www.CareerBuilder.com

http://www.Jobvertise.com


20 posted on 09/08/2012 11:41:04 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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