Jobs growth could raise jobless rate (to 9%!!!)

[onehandle]

An upward thrust in the jobless rate may be a surprise result of the creation of 2.6 million new jobs promised this year by the Bush administration, an outplacement survey warned yesterday.

The nation's unemployment rate, currently at 5.6%, could jump to 9% in the next few months, according to an analysis by Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

The report cited an improved economic climate that has already begun to lead formerly discouraged job seekers to begin searching again.

Any significant growth of the available labor pool means a larger percentage of people will be classified as jobless. Those who answer government surveys by saying they're not actively looking for work aren't considered part of the available labor pool, and hence are not counted as being unemployed.

http://www.nydailynews.com/business/story/165042p-144570c.html

More detailed story here at a real newspaper:

Jobless rate could surge on good hiring news
http://eastbay.bizjournals.com/eastbay/stories/2004/02/16/daily6.html

[enki23]

1. just another way of saying we're already at 9% and likely more

.

[onehandle]

4. Look for them to change the way they count unemployed.

General Rove will find a way.

[Mithras61]

15. I keep referring people to this site...

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a site that you can use to pull up the U6 (what I call the "real" unemployment rate) instead of the U3 (the official unemployment rate)

http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab12.htm

U6 currently shows about 10.9% unemployment.

[stevedeshazer]

26. Thanks

I've bookmarked that one...

[okieinpain]

2. I don't believe the s*** coming out of their mouths. man, oh man

can they cover bush's butt any better. oh 9% unemployment is just because things are so freakin great. move on.

[wryter2000]

7. You nailed it, Okie

We'll have to remind them that the jobs haven't appeared when they start with that BS.

[stevedeshazer]

27. There ya go

Orwell lives. Better economy means more jobless.

[demnan]

3. For a true indication of the unemployment rate

they should consider the number of people on food stamps, at soup kitchens, etc., not the "unemployment" rate which merely counts those collecting unemployment insurance.

[UpInArms]

5. the unemployment numbers are so skewed

that the real gauge of unemployed people is almost impossible to calculate

The 23.6 million inactive but potential job seekers are made up of the 4.7 million people who want jobs but didn't seek work during the four weeks prior to being surveyed by the government. Their reasons vary from family responsibilities to discouragement. Some people couldn't find child care or transportation.

The remaining 80 percent, or 18.9 million, "inactives" -- a figure that is available but unpublished in any reports issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- represent people in their prime working years (ages 25 to 54) who neither have nor want a job, the Challenger report says.

[NickB79]

11. "who neither have nor want a job"

What pure unadulterated bullshit! Typical Repub talking point, "the poor are poor because they're lazy and don't want to work, so it's their own fault." When are people gonna wake up and realize that they don't care about the working class?!?! How many of those 18.9 million potential voters like being called jobless because they're lazy and don't want jobs? Are any of them still gonna vote Bush in '04?

[54anickel]

13. I took that to mean the idependently weathly sorts. Like the blonde

model down on the farm in that show.

Your understanding is probably more corrrect.

[Frodo]

19. How about people who stay home with the kid(s)?

They certainly aren't "wealthy" and they sure as he11 aren't "lazy".

But they also aren't "unemployed".

[DemNoir]

6. This just proves

That employment statistics have always been total nonsense.

[bif]

8. But...but...George is very optimistic about the economy!

How could this be?

[htuttle]

9. They basically admit that the UE rate is at least 9% right now

They are saying that all these people are already out of work, but that some of them aren't counted yet. They DO exist, nonetheless.

It sounds as if they are going to spin the huge jump in the UE rate as some sort of statistical anomaly, when it is actually just correcting the rate to be closer to actual.

[mouse7]

10. Ding Ding. You're a winner.

They're playing so many games with the numbers it's ridiculous.

[Skittles]

23. no way will it work

you simply cannot spin a 9% unemployment rate, especially when everyone knows people who are looking for work, and most of us are afraid of becoming one of them.

[daveskilt]

12. this way they can claim the 9% unemployment is a GOOD thing

when election time rolls around. True doublespeak from the current masters at bushco.

[htuttle]

14. I don't think it's ultimately going to work for them...

You can talk fools into a believing a lot of things.

However, I stand by my assertion that you can NOT talk someone out of being hungry. In fact, if they are hungry, and you tell them they aren't, they are likely to become hostile (cf. French Revolution).

"A hungry mob is an angry mob."
-- Bob Marley

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. I will believe 2.7million jobs created this year when it happens

What is he going to do? Increase the federal workforce? Yeah, that will help.
Order companies to hire more people? Yeah, right.

The whole thing is a silly pipe dream.

[Laughing Mirror]

17. 24 million inactive, on the sidelines

is a percentage of how many active, currently in the labor market?

We need the number of active workers in the labor market. To make a comparison. Who has this number? I can't find it in World Bank stats. I didn't look up Department of Labor. If they don't tally up inactive job seekers, I didn't think they'd bother with the active workers.

[tom_paine]

18. And Imperial Amerika looks more and more like the Old Soviet Union

This would be what someone wrote to explain how the Toilet Paper shortages actually meant there was a SURPLUS of toilet paper!

Jesus, how far into the shitter of Totalitarianism has our Formely Free Nation fallen!

If I lived in the Free World and was looking at this shit coming ut of Imperial Amerika, I would laugh and tsk-tsk and thank my God that I didn't live in THAT place.

[The_Casual_Observer]

20. They don't have any idea how many people are unemployed

They don't have a plan for creating the 2.6 million jobs either.
The council of economic advisor's goal is to game the system in order to pump up the stock market.There is no plan beyond that. Beyond the pep talk, has anyone retained a single suggestion that would lead to the creation of jobs in this country????


The only thing that matters to the ruling class is getting chimp reelected, so that he can reduce taxes for the wealthy, eliminate Medicare and social security, and further promote corporate globalization. They are trying to fool the public into thinking that prosperity it right around the corner.

[w4rma]

21. Growth in the number of jobs increases unemployment?!?

This is how they are going to spin the insanely high levels of unemployement right now?

[JNelson6563]

24. It'll increase the reported UE #

So many have dropped out of the labor market, not going to the UE office, no need, benefits exhausted, not counted. If jobs pick up (don't hold your breath) then they will actively seek work again which will then show them as unemployed instead of non-existent.

It's really like taking the invisibility cloak off the masses that are already there.

Julie

[Media_Lies_Daily]

22. Oh, brother. (shaking head)

[2cents]

25. They desperately want to shake the "Hoover" label before Nov

Call for OFM - (Office of Fuzzy Math)