To: jlallen who wrote (885057 ) 9/5/2015 1:33:22 PM From: Mongo2116 2 RecommendationsRecommended By
Read Replies (2) | Respond to Unemployment Lowest Since 2008… Unless You Use Phony Numbers September 4, 2015Matt Terzi Datalog Republish Reprint The Unemployment rate dropped significantly in August from 5.3% to 5.1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. making today’s unemployment the lowest since April of 2008, when unemployment was at 5% even. This number might still be revised and improved upon later in the month as well. Job growth slowed down between July and August, but there’s still a great deal of momentum in the job market. Economists predict the US will gain about 2 million jobs total this year. More good news? Wages have increased in this period, and the economy has been adding more high-income jobs as well. Of course, this is usually the part in the story where conservatives yell “NUH-UH! You only get there by using the U-3 measurement! He’s way worse if you look at U-6! Don’t you know anything? There are 94 million Americans out of work, because Obama is secretly a Muslim!” Okay… take a knee, knuckleheads. First of all, let’s break out our calculators and do some simple math. Are you ready? Good. The U-6 rating puts unemployment at 10.3%. There are 318.9 million Americans total. So what’s 10.3% of 318.9 million? Around 32.85 million. Again, this is by the U-6 statistic conservatives always blather about. So that 94 million number? Yeah… that’s pure BS. How do conservatives come up with this absurd “94 million” number? Children. No, I don’t mean they ask kids to shout out whatever number comes into their head, however much it seems that way. There are about 60.6 million American children under the age of 16. Add those kids to the U-6 rating, and what do you get? 93.45 million “unemployed.” Oh, but we’re not quite done yet, folks: the U-6 rating itself is also a load of bull. There’s a reason the Bureau of Labor Statistics considers the U-3 rating “official,” instead of the U-6 rating, and why every presidential administration and candidate since 1948 has talked exclusively about U-3 numbers: The U-6 rating counts retirees, America’s disabled, and full-time students. So yes, unemployment is down to 5.1%, and yes, that is a very, very good thing. Don’t let a bunch of right-wing, agenda-driven websites convince you otherwise. President Barack Obama has been great for this economy, and the only way you can say otherwise is if you first decide to move the goal-posts for presidential success. Obama has been better for the economy than any Republican since the BLS started taking statistics in 1948. It’s time for disgruntled right-wingers to find something new to gripe about.
