Job surge a mirage: As many as 50K ‘illusory’ hires fuel 165K uptick in April

New York Post ^ | 05/04/2013 | John Crudelle

[SeekAndFind]

I

[SeekAndFind]

Around 50,000 of these phantom jobs will be added in May and another 50,000 or so in June.

To put it in perspective, the number of jobs reported in April was barely enough to absorb people coming into the workforce for the first time, much less to give positions to those who are unemployed.

Twice that growth would begin to mean the economy is returning to health.

[albionin]

So what happens when all the graduates this spring from college get out there and start looking for work. Do they get added to the books as seeking employment or are they already counted as being of working age. Also I thought we needed to add 250,000 jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. How can the unemployment rate drop on 165,000?

[Venturer]

employment numbers are rigged during the months of April, May and June
............................................................
The other 9 months are BS too.

As a matter of fact I do not believe anything that comes out of this Government under the Muslim liar.

Remember he just went to Mexico and blamed Americans for the guns going there, and he is the one that sent them.

[TwelveOfTwenty]

What would the unemployment (U3) be during the past year if the participation rate was what it was in 2007 or 2009? Anyone have the numbers?

[blueunicorn6]

You mean an administration that lied about Benghazi would lie about employment?

[wny]

If Romney were president, the same mediawhores and demholes celebrating thess numbers would be slamming them as insufficient, saying 200,000 a month are required just to keep up with population growth .....

[depressed in 06]

The new zerOcare definition of full time employment is two 19 hour jobs per person. The dumBO administration counts these as two full time jobs.

[Don Corleone]

As a matter of fact I do not believe anything that comes out of this Government under the Muslim liar.

Remember he just went to Mexico and blamed Americans for the guns going there, and he is the one that sent them.

To be a true Marxist you must be able to hold two totally contradictory beliefs in your mind at the same time and believe both of them completely. That is Obama.

[SunkenCiv]

This appears to be meme-building for a huge tax increase. Partisan Media Shills ping. Thanks SeekAndFind.

[OrioleFan]

Maybe all of us who left the workforce should try to get back in before the college grads hit the market. Up the participation rate and see what the labor department does.

[CodeToad]

Zero may be fooling his lapdog media but he isn’t fooling those out of work.

[dfwgator]

If Romney were president, the same mediawhores and demholes celebrating thess numbers would be slamming them as insufficient, saying 200,000 a month are required just to keep up with population growth .....

They would just dismiss them as "McJobs", like they did with Bush.

[expat_panama]

What would the unemployment (U3) be during the past year if the participation rate was what it was in 2007 or 2009? Anyone have the numbers?

For me it's easier just to stick with the employment/population numbers:

The numbers are clear enough about the harm done by current policies, but this NYPost article is messed up.  The writer says he's getting his stuff from the BLS--

...the report showed that about 50,000 of those new jobs — or 193,000 on a pre-adjusted basis — were based on government assumptions, not fact... ...This time of year, the assumptions include the outdated belief that companies hire workers in the spring and during Christmas and lay them off by the millions after the holiday season.  That just doesn’t happen on a wide scale anymore.

--but he's not.  Here's what the BLS actually says:

Numbers in thousands	Not Seasonally Adjusted	Seasonally Adjusted
Civilian noninstitutional population	245,175	245,175
Civilian labor force	154,739	155,238
Employed	143,724	143,579
unemployment rate	7.1%	7.5%
participation rate	63.1%	63.3%
employment percent population	58.6%	58.6%

The BLS raw data has a 7.1% unemployment rate and it's the 7.5% that's got a seasonal adjustment.  I mean, sure it's fun to call Obama names but it's more fun when we also try to make sense.

[kevao]

The official unemployment number should be the U6, not the U3. Any unemployment measure that discounts “discouraged workers” is meaningless.