There was a time when you could rely on employment statistics. Sure,
they did reflect some bias, but we factored that in when we read them.
Charting statistics stayed static for many years.
I think it was Nixon's statisticians who decided to include the
servicemen in the employment stats. At some point in time the
government decided to drop off those workers who had been unable to
find employment for a period of time...I think it was 18 months. The
effort, of course, was to show a more positive employment record than
the actual figure. The other part of employment stats that is not
shown, is the average earnings today, as compared with ten, twenty, or
fifty years ago. But that is because today's labor is working cheaper
than back then. Government statisticians are set to the task of
producing positive outcomes, and down playing or ignoring unfavorable
stats.
But the truth is all about us. We don't need to look at any chart.
Just go to your local shopping district and look around. How many new
closures do you see? Shops that were holding on last month, now
sporting "closed" signs.
How many people do you see standing at the street corners holding
signs begging for change to feed their children? How many folks do
you find in the late evening, bedding down in the back seats of their
cars? What about the local shelters? Do they have any open beds?
Are the Gospel Missions empty? How are sales in the secondhand
stores, compared to sales in the department stores? Are restaurants
serving more or fewer customers?
It doesn't take long to get a feel for your local community's
financial well-being.
Let the government's liars do their figuring. Anyway, you can use the
exercise.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/17/15, Roger Loran Bailey <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://themilitant.com/2015/7925/792504.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 25 July 20, 2015
(front page)
US says ‘close to full employment’
while millions don’t have a job
Percent of working-age population who are employed fell from 63.3
percent in January 2007 to 59.4 percent at end of recession in June
2009, and has not risen above that figure since.
BY BRIAN WILLIAMS
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment declined 0.2
percent last month, bringing the official rate to 5.3 percent. “The U.S.
economy is now close to full employment,” Federal Reserve Vice Chairman
Stanley Fischer said June 30.
But these statistics mask a harsh reality: six years into the recovery,
millions of workers are jobless, especially in mining, steel, oil and
other basic industries, and many of the new jobs that have come online
are part time, temporary or relatively low paid.
Orders for manufactured goods dropped 1 percent in May, the ninth
decline over the last 10 months, reported the Commerce Department.
Mine bosses axed 4,000 jobs in June, bringing to 71,000 the number of
mine jobs cuts since December. At the end of May, Murray Energy told
1,417 workers at five West Virginia mines their jobs were being
eliminated. Almost 250 were cut in Ohio and 162 in Illinois. St.
Louis-based Patriot Coal filed for bankruptcy for the second time in
three years in May.
At the end of April, U.S. Steel issued layoff warnings to 9,000 of its
35,000 workers. The bosses have cut back operations at eight mills,
idled the East Chicago Tin mill and permanently shut down the coke plant
at Gary Works.
With oil prices plummeting, job cuts worldwide are estimated at some
150,000, energy recruiting firm Swift Worldwide Resources said in June,
with the U.S. seeing “the fastest and steepest decline.” Schlumberger,
Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Weatherford, the world’s four biggest
oil-tool manufacturers, have announced plans to slash nearly 50,000 jobs.
BNSF Railway, the biggest carrier in the North Dakota Bakken shale
region, hauling most of the more than 1.1 million barrels of oil that
had been flowing out of the region daily, said in May it is planning to
furlough workers because of falling demand.
Trinity Industries in Texas, which manufactures rail cars, has run
through two rounds of layoffs, shedding 450 of its 1,150 workers.
According to the Labor Department, 223,000 jobs were added overall in
June. But the department revised its figures for April and May downward,
saying that 60,000 fewer jobs were created than previously reported.
At the same time, government statisticians removed 432,000 people from
the workforce, saying they were no longer looking for work. This brought
“labor participation” — those working or classified as officially
unemployed and actively looking for work — to a 38-year low of 62.6
percent of the civilian working-age population.
While official jobless rates have dropped from nearly 10 percent in 2010
to 5.3 percent today, some 6.5 million people who are only able to get
part-time hours are counted as employed. On top of the 8.3 million
workers classified as unemployed, there are 1.9 million more who have
been out of work for less than 12 months, but haven’t looked for work
over the past four weeks, who the government doesn’t include as part of
the labor force. The millions who haven’t looked for work in over a year
don’t count either.
The percentage of the working-age population with a job, a more
objective way of viewing what is happening than the unemployment rate,
dropped from 63.3 percent in January 2007 to 59.4 percent in June 2009
when the recession officially ended. Over the past six years it has not
risen above this figure. Last month it was 59.3 percent.
The Labor Department reported some 95,000 jobs were created last month
in retail, health care and leisure and hospitality. The expanding fight
for $15 an hour has pressured some employers, including McDonald’s,
Walmart and Target, to raise pay rates for some workers, but overall
real wages remain stagnant.
The crisis for workers’ jobs and wages is part of the long-term
worldwide decline in capitalist production and trade. Instead of
investing in plants and production, bosses seek a higher rate of return
through speculation on stocks, bonds, derivatives and other financial
bets, a course they can’t avoid but that inevitably leads to more
economic instability, explosive bubbles and financial crisis.
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