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President Barack Obama will return to Wisconsin for the first time in more than a year tomorrow. Last month in his State of the Union Address, Obama highlighted Milwaukee padlock manufacturer Master Lock bringing 100 jobs back from China. The company is now preparing for the President to see its work first hand. “I'm really excited,” said John Heppner, Master Lock’s CEO. “We're all really excited. This is great for our employees and for our community.”

...and I'm not the only one that got it. I generally ignore these kinds of things from these kinds of people. But I thought this one would be fun for fellow freepers to pick apart. Its not violently communists or anti-capitalist. It's fairly mild compared to other things he sends. In fact, I suspect he doesn't even realize it is commie oriented. As usual though, he mixes environmentalism with communism in all his ideas and propaganda. I responded to him with a very short explanation that we can't live without a modern economy anymore since we don't have the naturally...

In this morning's Cashin's Comments, Art Cashin points to some disturbing research regarding the recent bump in disability benefit applications:I’m Sick Of Being Unemployed - A couple of strange and rather disquieting reports circulated among the Friends of Fermentation yesterday.  The topic was unemployment or, more specifically, where do those people go who have stopped looking for work.  Their absence is credited with distorting the unemployment rate and making it lower than most expect or believe.The reports I allude to, contended that many went on disability.  In fact, they projected that nearly 25% of those not actively seeking a job...

In the United States today, unemployment among those age 18 to age 34 is at epidemic levels and the number of young adults that are now living at home with Mom and Dad is at an all-time high. So why are so many of our young adults jobless? Why are record numbers of them unable or unwilling to move out on their own? Well, there are quite a few factors at work. Number one, our education system has completely and totally failed them. As I have written about previously, our education system is a joke and most high school...

In the United States today, unemployment among those age 18 to age 34 is at epidemic levels and the number of young adults that are now living at home with Mom and Dad is at an all-time high. So why are so many of our young adults jobless? Why are record numbers of them unable or unwilling to move out on their own? Well, there are quite a few factors at work. Number one, our education system has completely and totally failed them. As I have written about previously, our education system is a joke and most high school...

A state-subsidized investment program yielded huge returns for three out-of-state financial firms and their partners while netting just 202 new jobs for Wisconsin, at a cost of more than $247,000 per job, a Journal Sentinel analysis has found.

by John Hill Stand With Arizona Kris Kobach, architect of Arizona's landmark S.B. 1070 and Kansas Secretary of State, brought needed common sense to the CPAC Conference discussion on immigration. Following remarks by Alex Nowrasteh, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, in which he denounced E-Verify and claimed - to boos from the audience - that "free market conservatives" should allow employers to hire illegal aliens (see synopsis here), it was Kobach's turn to restore sanity. First Mr. Kobach laid out the concept of "attrition through enforcement" with a simple analogy. He then laid out how Arizona and...

What do you have to do to get the FBI to open a file on you?Patt Morrison February 10, 2012 **SNIP** Since the days of J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI has been compiling information on people deemed to be worthy of watching. But what do you have to do to attract their attention? Would buying a copy of "The Anarchist Cookbook," checking out a Noam Chomsky book at your local library, or attending an Occupy protest be enough to get your own FBI file? How do you find out whether or not you’ve got a file with the FBI, and...

The Great, Obama Unemployment Rate Scam *February 9, 2012 | By BoomerJeff * Political communication in America is largely an effort to influence the perceptions of those who pay little attention to politics by stripping complex concepts and issues down to easily understood statistics and simplistic soundbites. In each of his first 33 months in office President Obama suffered because the easily understood Unemployment Rate remained very high. But over the past four months it fell from 9% to 8.3% and Obama and his media supporters are making the most of it. They tell us the economy has improved so...

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell last week, underscoring a firming of the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 358,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The four-week moving average for new claims, seen as a better measure of labor market trends, fell 11,000 to 366,250 - the lowest level since April 2008. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new claims rising to 370,000. U.S. stock index futures slightly added to gains after the report, while Treasury debt prices eased. The dollar rose to a session...

In a recent MLive.com column, political pundit Tim Skubick criticized Gov. Rick Snyder for not projecting how many jobs his tax cuts will generate. “Well, when it comes to the governor’s much-touted $1.8 billion tax cut for business, just one month old, there is no accountability on how many jobs it will create. Zero. Nada. Zippo,” Skubick wrote. “You mean with all his business connections he couldn’t find some schlub to run the numbers into the computer and come out with an answer on the other end?” Skubick added. But Michael LaFaive says Michigan residents have had their fill of...

After countless attempts to discredit or defend Friday's jobs report, we can all agree on one thing: The data is complicated. So complicated that the BLS could make the economy look better than it was and no one would be sure. Former Reagan budget director David Stockman said as much in an email to Bruce Krasting, in response to Krasting's criticism of the jobs report. Stockman writes: "If you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up." Here's the email (via Wall Street Examiner): Bruce– Great job on the Summers catch, but...

It may come as a surprise that according to the federal government, an out-of-work person who put in an application at every place in town more than thirty days ago, who scours every available newspaper's want ads every morning, and who visits every job search website on the web with no luck is not counted as unemployed. Indeed, he would not be considered member of the labor force because he is not actively searching for a job. Each month, the media report unemployment figures for the previous month. Much attention is paid to these figures, and many public and private...

Last week, the White House claimed that unemployment dropped for the fifth consecutive month to 8.3 percent — the lowest it has been in nearly three years — after adding 243,000 jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But financial experts are saying the figures may have been manipulated — and that the significant drop in employment was because of the fact that the federal agency charged with computing key economic data has significantly decreased the number of Americans in the workforce. “If you hold the workforce participation rate constant over the past year, unemployment would be about 8.9...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: When it comes to the unemployment rate, it’s nice to be president. Sure, it wasn’t so nice for President Obama in October 2009, when the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics declared the rate was 10 percent. But exactly a year from Election Day 2012, the rate began a precipitous plunge, first to 8.9 percent, then the next month, to 8.7, then to 8.5. And just last week, the BLS said the rate had fallen all the way down to 8.3 percent. So, spectacular news for the president, yes? And fantastic news for America, right? Uh, yes. And absolutely no....

The January jobs report is out and it seems pretty strong, at least superficially. The unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent, the lowest rate since February 2009. And the economy added 243,000 jobs, the most since April 2011.But does anyone believe an "official" unemployment rate of 8.3 percent really gives an accurate picture of the U.S. labor market? Even though the unemployment rate fell, so did the labor force participation rate (as more Americans became discouraged and gave up looking for work). Here’s what that means:1. If the size of the U.S. labor force as a share...

Was Friday's "Employment Situation" report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) good news? Sure, if you live on Fantasy Island. Back here in America? Not so much. The BLS reported that the closely followed "headline" (U-3) unemployment rate fell to 8.3% in January. This represented a decline of 0.2 percentage points from the previous month's level and the lowest level since February 2009. So, why isn't this good news? The problem isn't just that the employment report wasn't good news, it's that the employment report wasn't even news. Rather, it was simply the latest monthly installment of the long-running...

Reporting from Washington— After scraping by on handyman jobs for a year, Bert Qintana figured he'd have to leave his wife and teenage son at their home near Taos, N.M., and find work elsewhere. Then Qintana got a call last month from Chevron Mining, which runs a mine 20 miles away. Would he be interested in hauling muck from the molybdenum mine for $17.05 an hour? He leaped at the offer. (SNIP) While they make up only 15% of the country's workforce, Latinos have racked up half the employment gains posted since the economy began adding jobs in early 2010,...

CNBC's Rick Santelli puts his perspective on the Jobs Report. Believe it or not 1.2 million Americans dropped out of the Jobs Market which enabled the Unemployment Rate to drop. VIDEO - RICK SANTELLI

*“Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin” ~ Book of Daniel, Ch. 5 ** By: Larry Walker, Jr. *The writing's on the wall! The massive decline of new entrants to the civilian labor force, which is shown graphically in the chart above, directly impacts the unemployment rate, making the employment situation appear far better than it actually is. If the 9.3 million workers who have effectively dropped out of the labor force, since the end of 2008, were instead of being excluded, counted as unemployed, the real unemployment rate would be 13.5% instead of yesterday’s published rate of 8.3%. Even if only...

Of course it's good news that 243,000 new jobs were created in January, shaving the unemployment rate to 8.3%. But thanks to massive policy errors by the White House, we're still way below where we should be. President Obama, speaking in Arlington, Va., immediately took credit for the bullish report, crowing that "altogether, we've added 3.7 million new jobs over the last 23 months." According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the economy is just 0.7% above its previous high. Usually at this point in an expansion, it's 13.5% above the last peak. In other words, thanks...

The new employment numbers are out and they show that unemployment fell to 8.3% in January. Woo-hoo. We added “243,000″ jobs, right? Not exactly. From Zero Hedge: “In January, the number of Part Time workers rose by 699K, the most ever, from 27,040K to 27,739K, the third highest number in the history of this series. How about Full time jobs? They went from 113,765 to 113,845. An 80K increase. So the epic January number of 141.6 million employed, which rose by 847K at the headline level: only about 10 % of that was full time jobs: surely an indicator of...

Congress should investigate cooked employment booksThe White House hyped the news Friday that January payrolls had risen by 243,000. The hitch is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also dropped 1.2 million from the calculated workforce. Somehow this net loss of a million workers in a single month was transformed into an improvement in the unemployment rate. As the old saying goes, figures can lie, and liars can figure. “Job growth was widespread,” the BLS reported, but most Americans sense that something isn’t quite right with the numbers. The most important change was the deep decline in the workforce. While...

There are times when one questions a report as possibly being wrong or in error, and then there are times when one has to raise a flag and say "This is an intentionally false picture being presented by a government agency."I'm in the latter camp with this one, and it is rare for me to brand something as not possibly wrong and in error, but intentionally fraudulent. Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job growth was widespread in the private sector,...

Saying the economy is “growing stronger,” President Obama issued a strong warning to Congress on Friday: “Do not slow down the recovery ... don't muck it up!" Speaking at a fire house in Arlington, Va. — hours after a jobs report showed the unemployment rate dropped from 8.5 to 8.3 percent — a fiery Obama said Washington has to do everything in its power to help the economy. He urged Congress to pass a payroll tax cut extension without drama and delay. “They just need to get it done, [it] shouldn’t be that complicated,” Obama said.

<p>The U.S. economy gained 243,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate slipped to 8.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast the U.S. would add 121,000 jobs last month, with a jobless rate of 8.5%. The private sector boosted payrolls by 257,000, led by large increases in manufacturing, professional services, leisure and hospitality and health care.</p>

If you are experienced in pulp & paper engineering type of work, there is hiring going on in Vancouver, WA - minimal travel. For more info, let me know.

It's jobs week in America. Yesterday, ADP told us that US companies added 170k jobs in January. Today, Challenger Gray tells us about job cuts and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tells us about initial unemployment claims. Tomorrow we get the official BLS nonfarm payroll and unemployment rate figures through January 2012. But all of this week's jobs data is short term in scope. The Bureau of Labor Statistics just published it's employment projections for 2010 to 2020, which includes a list of the 30 jobs that will grow fastest through 2020. Eleven of the 30 jobs require a...

Among five specific economic proposals, both Republicans and Democrats are in favor of giving tax breaks to corporations that bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas and pressuring China for fairer trade. They are sharply divided about increasing federal income taxes on upper-income Americans, increasing federal spending to help the long-term unemployed find jobs, and increasing federal spending on the development of alternative energy sources. The majority of independents favor all proposals. The findings are from a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 23, 2012, to gauge support for specific economic proposals Obama was expected to raise during his State of the Union...

I remember Daniels getting a lot of heat for not pushing RTW legislation last year. He and the Indiana House and Senate had a lot on their plates legislatively last year. Daniels wanted hearings on it last year and to look at RTW for this session. In December, Daniels came out in full support of RTW. Today he signed the bill into law making Indiana the 23rd RTW state in the nation. You gotta give Daniels credit. He is a man of his word. Great job Mitch!!!

More job candidates are being hired on the basis of what shows up on their social network pages, versus those one or two sheets of paper that are either emailed or snail-mailed into human resource departments.

Unemployed out of work longer than six months New data shows Florida is the worst state in the country to lose a job. Last year, 53% of jobless people in Florida were out of work longer than six months, according to the Brookings' Hamilton Project. Analysts blame it on the implosion of the housing market, which came to a screeching halt in 2007. The state's unemployment rate soared to one of the highest in the nation, peaking at 12% in December 2010. In the past year, the state's employment rate has dropped, following the national trend. About 130,000 jobs were...

Mitt Romney has taken quite a hit for his time at Bain Capital. Advertisements were run and movies were made (check out the trailer for King of Bain, if you have not already) depicting Romney as a job-killer. They portray him as a ruthless, greedy, and absolutely ravenous capitalist. This view is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of private equity, leveraged buyouts, and their role in a developed economy. When understood correctly, it is clear that Romney’s time at Bain was actually quite beneficial to the economy. Private equity keeps the economy flowing, and there is no...

During his live online interview Pres. Obama claims that his administration helped create 22 million jobs (January 30, 2012)

Is anyone not getting a lot of jobs show up in their search? The past few days this has happened for me on Monster.com.

Barry Levinson, responsible for such films as Rain Man, Bugsy and Diner, channels the Abbott and Costello classic, Who's on First, to discourse on the difference between unemployment and people looking for work.And here all along you thought they were the same. Unemployment as reported is at 9 percent. But it's actually more than 16 percent. Some smart statistician came up with a distinction. A slight of hand to make the unemployment number tolerable rather than frightening. The concept was simple: 9 percent are unemployed and are actively looking for work. The 16 percent includes those who gave up and...

The U.S. is still the leading manufacturing nation on earth and the percent of GDP that manufacturing occupies has remained about the same for the past 30 years. By Michael Newkirk, director, SAS

Madison - The Assembly approved a wide-ranging bill Thursday easing the way for an iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin, which supporters heralded as a way to create jobs and opponents disparaged as harmful to the environment. The bill passed 59-36, with all Republicans for it and all Democrats against it. "This definitely is the biggest jobs thing we're going to do" this legislative session, Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) said. "These aren't jobs that can pick up and go to China or India," he said. "The iron ore is in our ground, in Wisconsin." Democrats, environmentalists and many tribal...

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced his second bio-fuels loan guarantee in a week, revealing that the Agriculture Department (USDA) is slated to loan an Oregon biorefinery $232.5 million for a project expected to create 65 jobs and support 38 others. "This project and others like it will help to establish a domestic advanced biofuels industry that will create jobs here at home and open new markets in the Pacific Northwest and across America," Vilsack said in a statement. ZeaChem Boardman Biorefinery, LLC (ZBB), "must meet specific conditions before the 60 percent loan guarantee can be completed."

Editor's note: This piece was authored by Brion McClanahan. In case you missed it, and many did, President Barack Obama gave his annual “State of the Union” address last night. All the pageantry, the pomp…the demagoguery, what’s not to watch? In light of President Obama’s promises and agenda, perhaps it would be useful to analyze his address through the lens of the founding generation. After all, they wrote and ratified the Constitution, so they should have a fair understanding about its meaning, powers, and how it should be interpreted. Obama: “Tonight, I want to speak about how we move forward,...

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-01-26/unemployment-claims-durable-goods/52800550/1 USA today - link only

America's public school teachers are seeing their generations-old tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers who aren't performing. A few states have essentially nullified tenure protections altogether, according to an analysis being released Wednesday by the National Council on Teacher Quality. The changes are occurring as states replace virtually automatic "satisfactory" teacher evaluations with those linked to teacher performance and base teacher layoffs on performance instead of seniority. Politically powerful teachers unions are fighting back, arguing the changes lower morale, deny teachers due process, and unfairly target older teachers. Teachers in Wisconsin have historically been granted what...

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose last week, a government report showed on Thursday, but the underlying trend continued to point to improving labor market conditions. improving labor market conditions. Claims rose to 377,000, more than economists' expectations of 370,000. Meanwhile, orders for durable goods rose 3 percent in December after business spending increased. That was sharply above expectations for 2 percent growth. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits rose after a nearly four-year low the previous week. Applications had plummeted two weeks ago to their lowest level since April 2008. The four week average, a less volatile...

Madison - With a turbulent year behind him and the prospect of a historic recall election before him, Gov. Scott Walker is expected to highlight Wisconsin's economy in his second "state of the state" address Wednesday. ~snip~ In his first year, he balanced a $3 billion budget deficit with a focus on spending cuts rather than tax increases; presided over a modest increase of 13,500 private-sector jobs; and has seen unprecedented campaign fundraising and a new poll Wednesday putting him ahead of Democratic challengers. But challenges abound: The state has lost jobs for six months straight while the nation has...

This morning, Rep. Jan Schakowsky appeared on the Don Wade and Roma show on WLS-AM Chicago to comment on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Schakowsky praised the president’s green energy initiatives, claiming that the (recalled) Chevy Volt “is doing pretty well” and defending Obama’s failed investment in Solyndra. When the hosts asked her to defend President Obama’s decision to block the development of the Keystone pipeline, Schakowsky did not dispute that the project would create jobs, but denied that these jobs were significant: "Twenty thousand jobs is really not that many jobs and investing in green technologies...

The National Center for Public Policy Research is claiming a scalp today after Ford Motor Co. formally withdrew from the liberal U.S. Climate Action Partnership. The conservative non-profit announces today that Ford has withdrawn from the organization, which uses corporate support form management to work against shareholders' interests by promoting a cap-and-trade framework for carbon emissions.

While in the midst of some intense internecine warfare within the GOP it is sometimes easy to forget exactly what this election is about. It is about getting Barack Obama out of office and making America great again (which will involve fixing all of his numerous mistakes). Anyway, last night's State of the Union address was an excellent reminder of all of this. It's hard to read such tripe even to make fun of it by below are some key excerpts with color commentary from myself: On the day I took office, our auto industry was on the verge of...

Reports say President Obama’s State of the Union Address tonight will be focusing, in part, on economic fairness.... “He’s going to convince me he’s interested in fairness when he gets those 20,000 workers to work,” Grassley says. “He’s the only person standing in the way of those 20,000 jobs. You can’t blame John Deere, you can’t blame Caterpillar, you can’t blame Wall Street, you can’t blame anybody else. So if he’s going to be fair and equitable, create those 20,000 jobs.” Grassley says the pipeline also promises to create another 120,000 jobs indirectly. Grassley, a Republican, says America needs more...

FRiends: Once again I am facing the dilemma of possibly being unemployed over the next 6-7 months. My company is going through a major restructuring and is looking to dismiss up to 300 employees. I ask that you lift prayers to our Father asking him to be with my family and I....and with all those facing such....to give us peace, comfort, strength, and faith. We don't always understand our Fathers plan....and have to rely on his promise he will always provide and never abandon His children.....but sometimes I find it hard to put all my trust in Him. For all...

President Barack Obama portrays himself as a hard worker who constantly rolls up his sleeves to help Americans amid the economic recession. But he’s spending more of his energy and time running for re-election than he’s devoting to the ordinary tasks of pushing back special interests that profitably clog government, curb personal freedom and constrict entrepreneurship. (RELATED: Full coverage of Barack Obama) Out on the stump, he’s animated, active and energetic. That’s where his extraordinary talents as a political campaigner show up on TV. It’s a different story inside Washington,