Labor Statistics for July…Surprise!
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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