Dec. Unemployment figures- more statistical lies

Don't need to spend a lot of time to explain the smoke & mirrors act which is the December jobs report announced today.

First, the media trumpeted headline:

Unemployment lowest in three years (AP) -- "A burst of hiring in December pushed the U.S. unemployment rate to 8.5 percent giving the economy a boost at the end of 2011. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added a net 200,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest since February 2009. The rate has dropped for four straight months. The hiring gains cap a six-month stretch in which the economy generated 100,000 jobs or more in each month. That hasn't happened since April 2006."

That's simply Awesome, right?!

Now, the truth:

1)  The labor force itself declined by 50K from 153,937 to 153,887.  And since those who have given up finding work are not counted as unemployed, it pushes down the "official" unemployment numbers.

Since January, 2007, persons not in the labor force have Increased by 7.5 Million!

                 ~ Graph from ZeroHedge

The true unemployment rate- the reality-  when taking into consideration all U-6 criteria such as given up work, part-timers looking for full time work, etc, the figure is over 19%.

That is just about 1 in 5 Americans.

2)  Last month's average duration of unemployment was 40.8 weeks, the second worst ever and essentially in line with last month's record 40.9 weeks.   40 weeks is equivalent to 9 months.   A child can be conceived and born into the world in the length of time it takes the average person to get work.

But what kind of work?

Good ole' temp work!

No benefits, no job security, minimal to no skill requirements, low pay and absolutely Nothing to rebuild a shattered bank account with to make a resume productive.  Just dead-end temporary work where you can be let go at any time for any reason or no reason at all.

And we'll put aside the fact the stores hired people in December in anticipation of holiday season.  Jobs that don't stay into January.

Corporations love temps.

Shame the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't keep track of the unemployment rate of those professions requiring doctorates, or masters degrees, etc.  I guess specificity makes data harder to fudge.

And can you imagine what the unemployment rate is going to be once the President "fires" or lets go half a million (500,000) military personnel receiving paychecks from the Dept. of Defense, and suddenly in need of work, as part of his military restructuring plan?

Wowie...