There are 11.7 million Americans classified as “unemployed,” according to the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL). That’s a crappy number, but it’s tame in comparison to the number of working age Americans who are “not in the labor force.”
That number? 89,967,000. That’s a record – and it increased last month by a whopping 603,000. And bear in mind these aren’t retirees, these are people who could be working – but aren’t.
“The jobs recovery is a complete and total myth,” writes Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse Blog. “The percentage of the working age population in the United States that had a job in March 2013 was exactly the same as it was all the way back in March 2010.”
Wait … 2010? That’s right around the time the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama first began to reassure us that happy days were indeed here again. Or on the horizon anyway.
“We can say beyond a shadow of a doubt today we are headed in the right direction,” Obama said in May of 2010. “All those tough steps we took, they’re working, despite all the naysayers who were predicting failure.”
Really?
“The reality is that the entire decline in the unemployment rate over the past three years can be accounted for by the reduction in size of the labor force,” Snyder adds (emphasis original). “In other words, the Obama administration is getting unemployment to go down by pretending that millions upon millions of unemployed Americans simply do not want jobs anymore.”
There’s your “recovery,” people.
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2 comments
Again, an honest question would be, how feasible is it for a lot of the lost labor force to reenter the market? How much of the labor participation lost was old folks who see their careers as over anyways? What about the fact that labor participation has been falling since 2001? Can an economic disaster not make that worse?
People who need the employment don’t ordinarily just “give up looking” because their bills don’t just suddenly go away. They don’t get this magical indefinite unemployment check that pays 90% of what they used to make and get to live off the gubmint for the rest of their lives. Ask someone who has been shitcanned and looking for a job for the past year or two if they “simply do not want a job anymore.” Ask someone who is considered too old to hire, or someone who is passed over because of their gap in employment, if they just don’t want to work. Watch out, you might have to dodge a swing or two.
This “makers versus takers” shit is absolutely retarded. What is much more obvious is that Congress couldn’t give two shits about the lower and middle classes. All that matters is that corporations and rich people are getting the tax breaks/shelters they want and the laws passed that they want.
How about an article about Obama fucking over old people by looking at chained CPI for Social Security? Oh, wait, shortchanging old people in retirement might make them “want a job” again, right? You know, just like if they get fucked over with their Medicare vouchers? Grab your motorized wheelchair grammy, you need to get back to work if you want to afford your insulin and electricity this month!
Again, an honest question would be, how feasible is it for a lot of the lost labor force to reenter the market? How much of the labor participation lost was old folks who see their careers as over anyways? What about the fact that labor participation has been falling since 2001? Can an economic disaster not make that worse?
People who need the employment don’t ordinarily just “give up looking” because their bills don’t just suddenly go away. They don’t get this magical indefinite unemployment check that pays 90% of what they used to make and get to live off the gubmint for the rest of their lives. Ask someone who has been shitcanned and looking for a job for the past year or two if they “simply do not want a job anymore.” Ask someone who is considered too old to hire, or someone who is passed over because of their gap in employment, if they just don’t want to work. Watch out, you might have to dodge a swing or two.
This “makers versus takers” shit is absolutely retarded. What is much more obvious is that Congress couldn’t give two shits about the lower and middle classes. All that matters is that corporations and rich people are getting the tax breaks/shelters they want and the laws passed that they want.
How about an article about Obama fucking over old people by looking at chained CPI for Social Security? Oh, wait, shortchanging old people in retirement might make them “want a job” again, right? You know, just like if they get fucked over with their Medicare vouchers? Grab your motorized wheelchair grammy, you need to get back to work if you want to afford your insulin and electricity this month!