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Are poll workers being used to inflate jobs totals?
By JOHN CRUDELE
Last Updated: 2:30 AM, September 14, 2010
Posted: 1:15 AM, September 14, 2010
Workers at polling places for today's primary and November's general election are being required to file tax withholding forms for the first time ever in a move that could be aimed at inflating the nation's employment numbers.
Is this really a little Election Eve trick? Here's what I learned, you decide.
The New York City Board of Elections, which uses 30,000 to 36,000 temporary workers for both the primary and general election, said it is being ordered by the Internal Revenue Service to make "employees" out of the very temporary workers who tend the polling sites.
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On Friday, the nation's unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent for the third straight month, and the number of employed people increased by 103,000 to 154,021,000, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Since December 2016, 1,788,000 people have been added to the nation's employment roster, and the number of employed people has set six records since February, most recently in September. The labor force participation rate remained flat in December, as 67.2 percent of the population was either employed or actively seeking work last month.
In November, the nation’s civilian noninstitutionalized population, consisting of all people age 16 or older who were not in the military or an institution, reached 256,109,000. Of those, 160,597,000 participated in the labor force by either holding a job or actively seeking one. The 160,597,000 who participated in the labor force equaled 62.7 percent of the 256,109,000 civilian noninstitutionalized population. The number of people counted as not in the labor force -- meaning they did not have a job and were not looking for one -- set its third record for the year at 95,512,000 in December.
A growing number of baby-boomer retirees is steadily pushing up this not-in-the-labor-force number, as do the millions of other people who are not working for whatever reason, including school, child-rearing, etc. In a Friday morning tweet ahead of the jobs report, President Trump lauded “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.” “Dow goes from 18,589 on November 9, 2016, to 25,075 today, for a new all-time Record,” he wrote. “Jumped 1000 points in last 5 weeks, Record fastest 1000 point move in history. This is all about the Make America Great Again agenda! Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. Six trillion dollars in value created!”
Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for teenagers declined to 13.6 percent in December, offsetting an increase in November. In December, the unemployment rates for adult men (3.8 percent), adult women (3.7 percent), Whites (3.7 percent), Asians (2.5 percent), and Hispanics (4.9 percent) showed little or no change. Black unemployment reached a record low of 6.8 percent in December. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said job gains have averaged 204,000 over the last three months. And in another positive development in December, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents to $26.63. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 65 cents, or 2.5 percent.
1,788,000 More People Employed Since December 2016; 148,000 Jobs Added Last Month
State governments employed 19,000 fewer people in December 2017 than they did in December 2016. However, overall government employment in the United States increased by a net 42,000 during 2017 because of the 77,000 jobs added by local governments from December 2016 to December 2017. The federal government in December 2016 employed 2,819,000 people, according to BLS. By December 2017, that had dropped to 2,803,000—a decrease of 16,000.
State governments in December 2016 employed 5,085,000 people. But, by December 2017, that had dropped to 5,066,000—a decrease of 19,000. Local governments in December 2016 employed 14,395,000. By December 2017, that had climbed to 14,472,000—an increase of 77,000.
With federal and state governments dropping a combined 35,000 employees during 2017 and local governments adding 77,000, net government employment in the United States increased by 42,000—climbing from 22,299,000 in December 2016 to 22,341,000 in December 2017. In the years since 1939, according to BLS data, federal employment in December peaked in 1988, when it hit 3,156,000.
Federal Government Cut 16,000 Jobs in 2017
