Obama's Discouraged Worker Nation

[corazonroto]

The Sky is Falling....the Sky is Falling!

Before you start cheering about any news, that declares the Unemployment Rate is falling again (like chicken little about the sky), why not take a second and think about whether this is because there are more full time permanent jobs that stabilize the economy, or if it is only due to part time and temporary assignments that usually do not last very long? That makes a big difference. Should you be all excited about a number without knowing what it actually represents?

For example (hypothetical), you can't take much credit for adding three new jobs to the economy over two years, based on the fact that poor Suzy McPartTime Worker has to move through three crappy low paying short term gigs to feed her family. She also has had to resort to seeking state regular and federal extended unemployment compensation to make up the difference in between multiple lesser paying part-time jobs, which have yet to replace her long lost better paying and more stable full time work pre-economic crash. In the end she gives up looking for work, runs out of benefits and becomes a discouraged worker living off food stamps...but to some, all they can see is : Hooray! That's three more wonderful jobs created by our amazing governments super duper recovery effort....so high five the Almighty Obama who saved the day! Really? Do you want to brag about that?

This is what is really happening, and those UI numbers being fed to the eager media lap dogs do not represent any true "hope and change" for real recovery efforts. So far, This has amounted to an epic shell game, played out by our mighty Plutocrats and Oligarchs (which ball hides the real unemployment rate?). It has really has just become a game of "hide the discourage workers" :

A Part Time Discouraged Nation
According to the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, in January of 2009, there were 26.351 million people working part-time. Full Time employment back then was at 115.820 million. But, in July 2013, the number of part-time workers had grown to 28.233 million people (a change of 7.14%, adding 1,882,000 part time workers). At the same time Full Time Employment was only at 116.090 million (a small change of only 0.23% adding only 270,000 full time jobs since 2009).
Part-Time Nation | House Committee on Ways & Means

The numbers of people who are "Not in the Labor Force", and those seeking/relying on Part-Time Work (vs Full Time Work), has grow steadily according this data from the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics widget:
Bureau of Labor Data: Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (java applet ahead)

2009-2013
(Seas) Not in Labor Force

Jan 2009 - 80,507,000
July 2013 - 89,957,000
9,450,000 more are now counted as "Not in the Labor Force".
_________

2009-2013
(Seas) Unemployment Level - Looking For Full-Time Work

January 2009 - 10,426,000
July 2013 - 9,604,000
822,000 less people attempted to look for full time work.
_________

2009-2013
(Seas) Unemployment Level - Looking For Part-Time Work

January 2009 - 1,655,000
July 2013 - 1,882,000
227,000 more people are looking for part time work.
_________

2009-2013
(Seas) Employed, Usually Work Part Time

(actual BLS graph not available...this one is similar from Zero Hedge based on the same data)
Charting America's Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society (Part 2) And Parting Thoughts On The Household Survey | Zero Hedge
January 2013 - 26,351,000
July 2013 - 28,233,000
1,882,000 more people now say they work part-time.
_________

2009-2013
(Seas) Labor Force Participation Rate

January 2009 - 65.7%
July 2013 - 63.4%
The Participation Rate has dropped 2.3%.

Labor force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The labor force participation rate is the ratio between the labor force and the overall size of their cohort (national population of the same age range). In the West during the later half of the 20th century, the labor force participation rate increased significantly, largely due to the increasing number of women entering the workplace.

The labor force participation rate can decrease when the rate of growth of the population outweighs that of the employed and unemployed together. The labor force participation rate is a key component in long-term economic growth, almost as important as productivity.

The labor force participation rate explains how an increase in the unemployment rate can occur simultaneously with an increase in employment. If a large amount of new workers enter the labor force but only a small fraction become employed, then the increase in the number of unemployed workers can outpace the growth in employment.

July Labor Force Participation Rate Down - Business Insider

Despite the lackluster job growth, the unemployment rate still managed to tick down two notches to 7.4% in July from 7.6% in June.

Part of the reason: the labor force participation rate, which fell to 63.4% last month from 63.5% the month before.

The civilian labor force decreased by 37,000 to 155.80 million in July, while those not in the labor force rose by 240,000 to 89.96 million.

More related data/graphs here:
Jobs numbers are far worse than they look: Economy shed full-time jobs - Democratic Underground

Charting America's Transformation To A Part-Time Worker Society (Part 2) And Parting Thoughts On The Household Survey | Zero Hedge
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The Ways and Means Committee paints a bleak recovery picture (from October 2012 report)

The Unemployment Rate is going down mostly because of the way workers are classified and reported (not the whole nor real truth about the state of our economy). The number of jobs is going "up" incrementally, numerically speaking, but most people are being forced through a fast spinning revolving door to only part-time work or short time full time gigs. Employers are being more and more ruthless than ever, because workers are desperate for any job and less willing to fight back against reduced rights in the workplace. For many people, and these numbers agree, the one stable long term full time gig they had before the economic crash has turned into multiple part time jobs, or moving between part time and short term full time ones. They are giving up on looking for stable long term full-time work. Many are just giving up, and don't get counted (discouraged worker). Also, most of them need jobless benefits to make up the difference in order to survive in this new world order, but all the government has been doing is restricting, cutting and sequestering those benefits. Despite what these news cheerleaders are saying about the unemployment rate and number of jobs being created on the Big O's watch: the "recovery" so far has been a smoke screen, a fabrication, and mostly a lie based on twisted and manipulated half truths as part of a shell game involving how we classify workers vs the actual type and quality of work being found/created in the widely reported unemployment rates we see in the headlines.
Labor Force Characteristics (CPS)

Here is some more related data from the House Ways and Means Committee (released Friday, October 05, 2012, but not much has changed since then) :
10 Key Facts on Jobs and Unemployment | House Committee on Ways & Means

1. Almost 4 Million Fewer Jobs than Projected: In January 2009, the Obama Administration forecast there would be 137.6 million jobs in December 2010. Instead there were 130.3 million jobs in December 2010. Even 22 months later in October 2012, there are just 133.8 million jobs – 3.8 million fewer than the Administration’s forecast for late 2010.
The Jobs Search - For Americans Still Looking for Work, It?s an Unhappy Second Birthday for Stimulus | House Committee on Ways & Means

2. Slowest Jobs Recovery Ever: This is the only “recovery” since World War II (when official jobs data began) when jobs lost in the recession had not been recovered by this point.
Graph Gallery: Employment Graphs

3. Less Full Time Work: Since January 2009, the number of full-time employees has fallen by 371,000 while part-time employment has grown by over 1.5 million. This means part-time workers account for all of the net employment growth in the Obama years – the opposite of what Democrats predicted when they said their stimulus plan was “likely to move many workers from part-time to full-time work.”
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data
http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM116_obamadoc.pdf

4. Manufacturing Jobs Down: Since January 2009, 586,000 manufacturing jobs have been eliminated, the opposite of the Administration’s projected increase of 408,000 manufacturing jobs due to their trillion-dollar stimulus.
Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail [In thousands]
http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM116_obamadoc.pdf

5. Almost Seven Times More New Dropouts than New Employees: During the Obama Administration, the number of people not in the labor force has grown by 7.8 million while total employment has grown by 1.2 million. This means that during the Obama years new workforce dropouts have outnumbered new employees by almost 7 to 1.
Bureau of Labor Statistics Data

6. Far Higher Unemployment Rate than Projected: October’s 7.9% unemployment rate remains far above the 5.4% rate the Administration predicted for this month in their January 2009 report on the projected effects of stimulus. Democrats actually predicted unemployment would peak at the current 7.9% rate in July 2009 – over three years ago.
http://www.politico.com/pdf/PPM116_obamadoc.pdf

7. Real Unemployment Is Almost 11%: If the unemployment rate included the “invisible unemployed” (discouraged workers who have dropped out or never joined the workforce), the October 2012 unemployment rate would be 10.9%:

Unemployment Rate including "Invisible Unemployed" Back up to 11 Percent | House Committee on Ways & Means

8. More Unemployed Now than When Economy Was in “Free-Fall”: In October 2012, there were 12.3 million officially unemployed workers. That’s 209,000 more than when President Obama took office in January 2009 – when the Administration said “we were in economic free-fall.”
Top Picks (Most Requested Statistics) : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Carney: Economy Has "Vastly Improved" Since Obama Was Sworn In | RealClearPolitics

9. Over Two Million More Long-Term Unemployed: In October 2012, there were 5.0 million long-term unemployed (that is, for over six months) – 2.3 million more than when President Obama took office in January 2009.
Top Picks (Most Requested Statistics) : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

10. Economic Misery up 80%: The “Obama Misery Index” shows that unemployment and debt have risen by a combined 80% since the start of the Obama Administration.
Rise in Unemployment and Debt Combine for a Record ?Obama Misery Index? in May | House Committee on Ways & Means
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Conclusion & Other Related News

Do you think Suzy McPartTime Worker is happy about any of this? I doubt she agrees with what most of the media tries to pass off as "news" these days, especially when it comes to the unemployment rate and number of jobs created. Yet most people are still in denial (or blinded by O.C.D.S. aka "Obama Celebrity Deity Syndrome"). Too many people are desperate to cling to any number the news spits out, often with little facts other than numerical ones. Some other people have been digging through these numbers, and see them for what they really represent:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/econo...ated-in-2013-77-or-731-000-are-part-time.html

During recovery, most new jobs offer low wages - CBS News

Number of Long-Term Unemployed ?Unprecedented? Under Obama | Washington Free Beacon

Long-Term Unemployment: A Weak Link in a Fragile Recovery | TIME.com

Depression 2013: 97% Of Obama Era Jobs Are Only Part Time - The Ulsterman Report

Over the last six months, of the net job creation, 97 percent of that is part-time work,” said Keith Hall, a senior researcher at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center. “That is really remarkable.

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An Investigation related to Jobless Workers and Improper Benefit Denials

More information regarding my ongoing investigation into the improper denials of Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program benefits nationwide (EUC08) can be found at these links:

http://www.usmessageboard.com/econo...denied-the-long-term-unemployed-benefits.html

http://www.usmessageboard.com/economy/295786-obama-admin-covering-up-economic-stimuls-fraud.html

Helpful Points of Law for problems with "Multiple EUC Claims" and attempts to be paid from "Expired" EUC Claims - benefits, rate, legislation, insurance, jobless, extension, jobs, employers, employees, hiring, resumes, occupations, government, laws,

 

[Freemason9]

So you're saying that it is the GOVERNMENT--and, specifically, PRESIDENT OBAMA--that creates jobs in this country? Well, then, you right wingers need to get on board and support more massive federal spending programs for sufficient stimulus.

Private industry won't do it unless forced--their profit margins are as high as ever, due to increased "worker productivity" (more output per dollar spent in labor).