Posted on 01/25/2014 7:39:57 AM PST by Kaslin
It is becoming laughable to hear the Obama administration talk about a so-called “recovery.” Supposedly, this “recovery” started in June of 2009; however, in reality our economy is on life support and the latest jobs figures just confirm this horrible news.
In the government’s December labor report, the nation’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.7 percent, which is our lowest rate since October of 2008. While this may be heralded as good news, it is truly disturbing. Unfortunately, only 74,000 new jobs were added last month, the worst job growth numbers since January of 2011.
This is anemic job creation, a fraction of the 200,000+ new jobs needed each month just to keep pace with the nation’s population growth. It is even more shocking since most analysts predicted approximately 193,000 new jobs in December.
Even worse, of the new jobs, 40,000 were temporary positions, not what wage earners need to care for their families. Not surprisingly, the average work week for Americans dropped to only 34.4 hours. So, there are few full time jobs being created and on average Americans are working less. No wonder there are 47 million Americans on food stamps and over 50 million people who are considered poor.
The reason the unemployment rate dropped is that an astounding 347,000 Americans left the work force in December. This means that 5 times more Americans exited the labor pool than located new jobs. Our country now has 91.8 million Americans not in the work force. These are Americans who are receiving benefits, living off their savings or living on the streets. Many of these Americans have given up any hope of finding work and for these poor individuals; the hope of the American dream is over.
We cannot have a “recovery” with no jobs. There can be no “recovery” with a labor force participation rate of only 62.8 percent, the lowest level since 1978. In December, the country’s civilian labor force dropped to 154.9 million. This is occurring at the same time that the population is increasing to 317 million.
If the labor force participation rate was the same today as it was at the start of the Obama administration, the nation’s unemployment rate would be over 11 percent. If that were the case, experts would be worried about an economic “crisis” and not boasting about a “recovery.”
There could be even worse news in future months. Due to Obamacare, the healthcare industry will face a severe crisis. In December, 6,000 healthcare jobs were lost, the first time in 10 years that there have been any losses in healthcare. This trend will likely accelerate in 2014 as the truly disastrous policies of Obamacare are implemented.
If the President was truly concerned about the economy, he would immediately halt the onslaught of Obamacare and start working on pro-growth policies of tax and budget reform and sensible energy policies such as construction of the Keystone pipeline. Sadly, the President is still committed to pro government, anti-growth positions that exacerbated these problems in the first place.
While the administration claims that “Happy Days are Here Again,” the reality is that our economic clouds are darkening and a major storm is coming our way.
I am looking and can vouch first-hand for how bad it is out there.
China has lots of jobs, which used to be American.
Now they’re not.
China now sells 300 trillion more to America, than America sells to China.
300 trillion a year.
In Dave Stockman’s book, he shows calculation that the number of “breadwinner” jobs (his terminology) peaked in 98, and has been going down ever since.
When I was a young man, they built large buildings, filled them with machines, and called them factories.
When I was middle age, they built large buildings, filled them with stuff made in China, and called them warehouses.
Now that I’m old, the don’t build large buildings.
There has been no recovery. We are in a DEPRESSION, and have been since about the time the TARP program was rolled out. Had that atrocity never been introduced, we would have recovered, with absolutely no “help” from the Federal government, by 2010, and been well on our way to the kind of prosperity we enjoyed under Eisenhower and later Reagan.
But NOOOOO. The “experts” who knew so much more than any of the rest of us (and most of what they knew was just dead wrong) got the votes to ram through Congress and into the ever-growing stack of contradictory and self-serving regulation we have come to know and love, with the Current Regime now squatting in the White Hut.
“Once I built a railroad, I made it run
Made it race against time
Once I built a railroad, now it’s done
Brother, can you spare a dime?”
Even if they wanted to, it would take too long to get the necessary permits.
Anyone with half a brain knows they are re-categorizing what a “job” is now to skew the numbers. Let’s do a “real” report about “gainful” employment that you can support a family on, not these fast food after school or temp jobs.
> If the President was truly concerned about the economy, he would immediately halt the onslaught of Obamacare and start working on pro-growth policies of tax and budget reform and sensible energy policies such as construction of the Keystone pipeline. Sadly, the President is still committed to pro government, anti-growth positions that exacerbated these problems in the first place.
Bingo to ^ and what you said. This is the beginning of the second Great Depression brought on br The One himself and intentionally I believe.
If absolutely nothing was different other than Romney being president instead of this puke, we’d be hearing about nothing but recession, depression, worst economy in 50 years, etc. etc. from the mediawhores 24/7
Billion, not trillion. Still horrible.
When I was a young man, they built large buildings, filled them with machines, and called them factories.
When I was middle age, they built large buildings, filled them with stuff made in China, and called them warehouses.
Now that I’m old, the don’t build large buildings.
Correction:
Now that I’m old, they build larg buildings and fill them with technology to spy on Americans.
“Welcome to Jobless America”
And a large part of the electorate, along with the Progressives who manipulate them, absolutely love it.
IMHO
I’m 60. Have knee problems. Theoretically I’m employed doing real estate, but that is a bust.
The only way I’m going to make it the next 25 years of life is to create my own job(s). I’m well on my way to doing that, but I’ve been doing startups my whole life and have a clue what to do. Many people are just going to be left on the cutting room floor.
Yes they do. They fill them with server farms and massive data analysis computers, and use them to spy on people who were young men when the large buildings were factories.
bfl
Our company has a nice young man from North Carolina here tending to our CNC machine. He’s been out of work for awhile and gets the odd gig hooking up used equipment at new locations.
Such a nice accent. I haven’t ventured a conversation about politics yet, but I know he’s not too keen on unions. I may just drop Rush’s name and see if his face lights up or turns red with anger....maybe I’ll wait til our machine is working.
Nothing that MADE IN USA won’t solve. About everything you buy is made somewhere else. Bring the jobs home.
I'm not in the "favorable age" group and have been out of work since the end of September 2012....I have had two, count 'em two interviews....one person told me in no uncertain terms that I was too old for the job then tried to back track when I pointed out age discrimination. The other interview went just the same only the person didn't actually say the words "you're too old".......secondly, there are very few jobs out there and the job I lost in 2012 is now paying about $4 less an hour than what I was making at the time and there's a lot more responsibility now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.