Tag Archives: unemployment

I don’t want to say that extending unemployment payments keeps people from looking for a job, but…

This was posted on a local community Facebook page today (name omitted to protect the guilty):

“Hi, I’m looking for a receptionist job (preferably in a medical environment). Unemployment coming to an end and looking to start a job asap.”

Now what does that post imply to you? “Unemployment coming to an end” and “looking to start a job asap.”

Because to me it says, “I wasn’t looking for a job while Dear Leader was sending me checks.”

Which tells you all you need to know about why extending unemployment payments is a Bad Idea.

Recovery Summer! Unemployment edges back up, again

Apparently the fifth time isn’t a charm either. Another “Recovery Summer” goes bust.

The U.S. economy added 175,000 jobs in May, a gain that shows employers are hiring at a still-modest but steady pace.

The Labor Department said Friday that the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent from 7.5 percent in April.

The government revised the job figures for the previous two months. April’s gains were lowered to 149,000 from 165,000. March’s figure was increased slightly to 142,000 from 138,000. The net loss was 12,000 jobs.

Employers have added an average of 155,000 jobs in past three months, below the average of 237,000 created from November through February.

Everything is “below average” but it’s still good news. Why? Because that’s the Official Spin, that’s why!

Confirmed: All but 15,000 of last month’s “new jobs” are part time jobs

Don’t say “I told you so,” but I told you so.

I had surmised that behind the latest .1% downward tick in the unemployment rate there was in fact some bad news. And it turns out I was right.

Stacy McCain has the details via James Pethokoukis.

While the American economy added 293,000 jobs last month, according to the separate household survey, the number of persons employed part time for economic reasons — “involuntary part-time workers” as the Labor Department calls them – increased by almost as much, by 278,000 to 7.9 million. These folks were working part time because a) their hours had been cut back or b) they were unable to find a full-time job. At the same time, the U-6 unemployment rate — a broader measure of joblessness that includes discouraged workers and part-timers who want a full-time gig — rose from 13.8% to 13.9%.

So the bottom line is easy to see. One tenth of one percent of the population got a job last month. (Yay!) But one tenth of one percent of the population also joined the ranks of the underemployed last month too. (Boo!)

The difference of 15,000 jobs is the real measure of employment growth. Those are the “good,” full-time jobs that we really need. And unsurprisingly Obamanomics isn’t creating very many of those jobs at all.