Don't Be Fooled, The Obama Unemployment Rate Is 11%

Forbes ^ | 02/10/2012 | Peter Ferrara

[justlurking]

This is somewhat misleading. Last month's job report was the first to include population changes as indicated by the 2010 census. That adjusted both the labor force and non-labor force sizes.

I agree, but it's indisputable that the workforce participation rate is declining.

If you don't focus on the bump in number of people that appeared to drop out of the workforce, it looks like things actually were worse than expected, and the census corrected that: i.e.the number of people NOT in the workforce increased more than the people IN the workforce.

Or, did I misinterpret the numbers?

[chessplayer]

By November unemployment will be zero %.

[Marguerite]

Just check out this paragraph from the Labor Department's report:

"In January, 2.8 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. 2.8 million were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey."

That's HOW they are cooking the numbers, by not counting millions of unemployed Americans!!!

[IMR 4350]

They also don't count people that have never been in the labor pool and are looking for work, nor do they count the self employed that lost their business or contract jobs.

The only people being counted are people receiving unemployment.

I would be willing to bet the 16.3% figure you give is probably too low, but closer to reality than the 11%.

[Windflier]

[evad]

"One factoid to remember: One year ago, 99 million Americans were unemployed or otherwise not working, and the unemployment rate was 9.1%. Today, while the reported unemployment rate is 8.3%, over 100 million Americans are unemployed or otherwise not working."

The solution is simple. If we can get another million unemployed, we can reduce the rate to 7.5%

[evad]

"The only people being counted are people receiving unemployment."

That's not accurate. The UR is based on a sample.

[IMR 4350]

Why did they stop counting over 1 million people?

[freedommom]

obama could lower unemployment TODAY if he would allow drilling in the gulf of Mexico. (he said they can drill but the applications are still on hold)

[evad]

"Why did they stop counting over 1 million people?"

Dunno.
Maybe they can't count that high.
These are, after all, gubermit workers doing the surveys.

[prairiebreeze]

marker

[Theodore R.]

Does the 100 million include retirees? Americans would still like to “think” that the rate is 8.3, and that may be enough to justify in their little minds keeping Obama. They can be easily fooled again and again.