Labor Statistics for July…Surprise!
Published by Bob Foster
Well, the labor statistics for July have been released, and there seems to be some surprise in Washington that employment dropped by a net 131,000 people in July. There was also little mention that the newly unemployed number for June was “revised” downward by another 100,000.
However, the “official” unemployment rate of 9.5% remained unchanged. It always amazes me how so many jobs can be lost each month while the unemployment rate improves or remains unchanged. Of course the numbers are “seasonally adjusted.” I doubt that anyone knows what the formula is for seasonally adjusting the numbers, so I always stick with actual numbers.
Which, by the way, are much more representative of reality when we look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics U-6 numbers instead of the U-3 numbers. U-6 includes all unemployed people whether they said they looked for a job in the last 4 weeks or not. The U-6 number puts the unemployment rate at 16.8%.
But, don’t forget, this still does not include those people who did not report that they looked for work during the past 12 months; those who would like to enter the workforce but cannot find a job (new graduates and new immigrants); and those who do not report looking for work because they are in the country illegally. Some studies have put the real number of unemployed closer to 30%. Detroit has reported their actual unemployment rate at around 50%.
The point is; that Washington needs to quit their petty political bickering and get busy working on free enterprise job creation by supporting new businesses, new R&D, new expansions, new capital resources…and stop regulating and taxing businesses—and jobs—into oblivion.
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2 Responses to “Labor Statistics for July…Surprise!”
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Gee – I wonder why the rate didn’t change with all those lost jobs in June? Could it be that a large percentage of unemployed were cut off from their benefits and thus no longer reporting or even able to report?
Big business (megabanks, megacorps and rogue industries) are running this country into the ground because they want small businesses to fail. This short-sightedness based on greed is convincing Washington to continue in the downward spiral that I’m not sure we’re even capable of recovering from at this point. Unlike the Great Depression, Americans today don’t have what it takes (skillset, resources, industries) to recover at the same rate as in FDR days – no matter what Washington ever decides to respond to. I think we’re all fooling ourselves keeping busy arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Jeff – Thanks for your comment. You bring up some very interesting points. We may indeed no longer have what it takes to recover. America is far different today than it was in FDR’s day during the Great Depression. Back then most people worked in factories, or businesses supporting factories, so when the economy tanked, the factories laid people off and either slowed way down or went into idle mode.
That’s why when WWII started, the factories were able to quickly crank back up and produce the tremendous war machine that startled the rest of the world with how it came into being. (Sidebar: at the peak of production, Boeing rolled out one new B-17 Bomber every HOUR…could anything similar occur today?) It took very little time to wipe out unemployment during WWII.
Yet, we are in two major wars today, with a Defense budget larger than President Reagan’s controversial budget when he was rebuilding our armed forces. All of this while many of our factories are shuttered or demolished, and we have the largest number of unemployed (and underemployed) people ever. That should tell us something. Unfortunately, no one is listening.
You’re also right, that the future holds more questions than answers. I just read that the United States has lost its leadership in the percentage of young people with college degrees, and has fallen to 12th place among 36 developed nations. Yes, we just may be arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.