Friday, May 8, 2015

LABOR SECETARY PEREZ SPINS TALES ABOUT THE APRIL 2015 EMPLOYMENT SITUATION REPORT

Workers at the Bureau of Labor Statistics define the unemployment rate as the number unemployed as a percent of the labor force. Those at the BLS claim anyone can be counted as unemployed only if they meet all of the following criteria:
  • the would-be worker had no employment during the reference week
  • the would-be worker was available for work during that time
  • the would-be worker made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week
Those at the BLS also count those who have been laid off from their jobs but who expect to be recalled at a time in an undefined near future. Also, the BLS wizards define the civilian labor force as the sum of employed and unemployed persons, that is, those persons not classified as employed or unemployed are not in the labor force.

Of course, what the BLS workers call the unemployment rate in truth is the job seekers rate. A true unemployment rate would be the ratio of the true working potential to the true free Americans. To calculate this ratio, one would need to look at the sum of recent job seekers (unemployed), those who want to work but who are not recent job seekers and those who have looked for work but not in the last four weeks in ratio to the total civilian population, which are those not in the military, not in mental hospitals and not in prisons or county jails, less those who don't work and who are disabled and are aged at least 16.

Right now, the true unemployment rate stands at 7.15% which is quite higher than the job seekers rate, aka the ESS unemployment rate as reported, 5.4%.

Today, with the release of the April 2015 Employment Situation Report, Department of Labor Secretary, Thomas E. Perez, decided to lie and distort facts as any propaganda agent would.

Perez lied when he claimed, falsely, that private-sector employment has grown for 62 consecutive months claiming it to be longest streak on record. Meanwhile, since January 1939, for which Americans have data, the longest streak of private-sector job growth has been 11 months. This streak has been matched 10 times, ending on these dates: 12/1/1942, 12/1/1945, 12/1/1955, 12/1/1965, 12/1/1966, 12/1/1968, 12/1/1984, 12/1/1987, 12/1/1993, 12/1/1994.

Since January 1939, the longest streak of private-sector job loss happened between 7/1/2008 and 3/1/2009, lasting nine months. That alone should tell you how severe the Banking Crisis of 2008 was and that you lived through the Greatest Depression.

The second longest streak of private-sector job loss is seven months. That streak has been matched three times, between 9/1/1957 and 3/1/1958, between 9/1/1974 and 3/1/1975, and most recently between 7/1/2009 and 1/1/2010, during the Obama era.

The current streak of private-sector employment growth is a scant three months. It began back in February.

Secretary Perez bragged that private-sector employment has grown 12.3 million jobs since 3/1/2010, as if Congress or Obama has anything to do with capitalists putting cash and credit at risk to produce property in pursuit of profit. 

Meanwhile, private-sector employment has grown 13.7 million net jobs since 3/1/2010. However, there were whopper job losses during that span. 
  • 12/1/2010 to 1/1/2011, 2.385 million private-sector jobs were shed
  • 12/1/2011 to 1/1/2012, 2.112 million private-sector jobs were shed
  • 12/1/2012 and 1/1/2013, 2.351 million private-sector jobs were shed 
  • 12/1/2013 and 1/1/2014, 2.311 million private-sector jobs were shed
  • 12/1/2014 and 1/1/2015, 2.324 million private-sector jobs were shed 
Before the Banking Crisis of 2008, peak employment hit in Q4 2007, as 147.118 million had jobs. The low came in Q4 2009 when 137.599 million had jobs.

Since peak employment of Q4 2007, a scant 1.469 million jobs have been added. In Q4 2007, 63.12% of free Americans, age 16 and up were working . Today, the number of Americans working has dropped -5.9% to 59.37%. 

Free Americans of working age population have grown 7.44% since the peak and collapse. Meanwhile, total job growth has been lagging, having grown only 1%.

Back during the peak of Q4 2007, 50.07% of Americans held private-sector, capitalist jobs, the kind of jobs that make the economy work. Today, that number has fallen to 47.6%! Now that is scary. Less than half of the free working age population work private sector jobs.





All that said, the true unemployment picture has improved. 



And while the employment situation is much better than it was 48 months ago, it's not much better than it was three months ago or even 12 months ago, though the employment situation has bettered over the last six months.

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