The Magic of Obama Math

[Joshuatree]

The Obama administration knows that no President has ever been re-elected with an unemployment rate above 8 percent. After 44 months of unemployment over that level, today's employment data for September magically showed an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. This miracle was accomplished with the addition in September of only 114 thousands jobs. Arguably Ronald Reagan inherited an economy that was worse than the one inherited by President Obama, and by this point in the Reagan recovery the economy was adding 500 thousand jobs a month. So how, you may ask, did the Obama administration lower unemployment with such pathetic job growth? The answer can be found in the work force participation rate.

The work force participation rate is the percentage of working age adults who are employed or actively seeking work. This number is a full 2 percentage points lower than when President Obama was inaugurated in January of 2009. This means that the administration has written off millions of unemployed people in order to make it appear that a higher percentage of people are employed. If the work force participation rate was the same as when President Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 10.7 percent.

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[Dutch]

I will agree, if cons agree never again to cite BLS numbers on unemployment ever again. Good or bad. If Romney becomes president and the BLS says the UE rate becomes five percent you cannot cite that. Reagan's numbers, created by the same formula, can never be cited again.