Monday, March 12, 2012

The truth on February's Jobs Report

During the 2012 US Presidential Election, one of the biggest lies the incumbent will be running on, outside of the absurd notion that we're in a recovery, is that the jobless situation is improving.

He will convince millions of clueless Americans who get their information from TV news, AP headlines and Twitter, that things are getting better-- lower unemployment rate, quality jobs for everyone, people optimistic, etc.. basically selling pixie dust while stealing the Reagan's 1984 Presidential re-election campaign mantra of "Morning in America" without outright using those words (nor enacting any policy whatsoever in last 4 years to make life better for the bottom 99%).

So if you read A&G, you know by now that the Bureau of Labor Statistics purposely skews its figures.  You know they don't count those given up working or those not receiving unemployment benefits or part-timers as "unemployed"--  Would make those unemployment stats look too bad.

But don't blame Obama for that ruse-- this begun with Clinton.

So we sifted through this previous Friday's jobs report and here's the nuts and bolts; the reality that mainstream media doesn't bother to report:  (Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm)\
*  "The number of unemployed persons, at 12.8 million, was essentially unchanged" --  Hmm, now I thought the BLS said employment rose by 227,000?   How can something rise and yet the number of jobless remains unchanged?  Well when you need 250,000 jobs to be created each month simply to keep up with expansion of the population entering the workforce, that's how..

*  45,000 new jobs were temp workers..  so, that's um.. where's my calculator.. tap tap tap..  That's 1 in 5 new jobs created in February.  Temps.  People who receive no benefits or job security-- people who are easier to replace than an office stapler or cold cup of coffee.  

So temps were hired as well as people in the medical field and business services.. that's nice..  Anyone lose their jobs?  Let's see..  35,000 lost jobs in general merchandise stores.  Wonder if that means places like Macys and Wal-Mart, or the mom & pop stores who simply can't compete anymore with the corporate giants, and the taxes & business regulations imposed upon them which somehow the big boys get a pass on?  

14,000 less jobs in construction too-- Ehh, I'm sure they were just impeding the massive housing and commercial property recovery which is just about to explode.

*  23.8% of teenagers are out of work.   That's good I guess because teens can't vote anyways so it won't affect Obama's chances and besides, working might put a serious crimp in their PlayStation3 time.
*  14.1% of blacks unemployed (1 in 7).  Would sure hate to see those unemployment stats if a white person was President, right?  Good thing he's looking out for his people.

Let's be serious for a moment-- it is an undeniable Fact that Obama has not done a single thing in office to benefit the black community in meaningful way.  He's done nothing to improve minority job creation, assist in upstart entrepreneurship or established minority owned businesses.  (To be fair, Obama has done absolutely nothing to benefit working Hispanics, Asians or Caucasians and/or their businesses either) And yet incredibly over 95% of the black community feel immense pride and parade naivety by planning on re-electing the President.

*  8.1 million people currently work in part time jobs- the type of job that gives no benefits and which one barely has enough to make ends meet, much less to put away any savings, and 5.4 million people 'officially' have been jobless for over 27 weeks.

* The average hourly wage was  $23.31 and average workweek hours was 34.5.

So let's get that handy calculator out once more and do some math:

$23.31 x 34.5 hrs/wk x 52 weeks = $41,818/yr

For more fun, let's compare that yearly wage with someone in the corporate world.  Let's pick, um I don't know, Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs which has donated the second most of any corporation to Obama's re-election and the most so far to Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
From USA Today:

"(In 2010), Blankfein received a salary of $600,000, a cash bonus of $5.4 million and stock awards of $7.65 million for the year. He also received perks worth $464,067, including $185,110 for the use of a car, $62,020 for medical and dental coverage and the rest for life insurance, tax planning and retirement contributions. In addition, he was granted restricted stock valued at $12.6 million, up from $9 million in 2009, which is not counted in the total annual package because the grants are paid out over a period of three years"

So OK,  let's say we count only his salary of $600k only, and ignore the other $13 to $25 million he received, and let's pretend he only worked 34.5 hours per week as well...  That makes Blankfein's hourly salary a nice $334.44.

And what was the average hourly salary again? --  $23.31

Good thing we're brainwashed taught to not envy others' excess wealth.

While its too many months away from Election to accurately predict who will win, it is a very safe bet to say that the BLS' figures will continue being skewed, the media will Not report the details honestly and the Administration will milk every piece of faux upbeat news, as every incumbent politician has done for decades before.

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