US unemployment lower under Obama than when Bush left office...Or is it??

[ACoochy]

Stronger than expected Jobs Growth has seen the jobless number fall to 8.3%. World financial markets are celebrating, jumping 3% on this news. So then y doesnt this sit as well as i want it to...

Some excerpts

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article32988.html

"The labor force participation rate, which is the percentage of working-age persons in an economy who are employed or unemployed, dropped to 63.7 percent, its lowest level in 30 years.

A record breaking 1.2 million people dropped out of the available labor pool used in the unemployment calculation. Using the average long-term labor force participation rate of 65.8 percent, the real unemployment rate actually increased in January to 11.5 percent. In fact, the spread between the reported and implied unemployment rate just hit a fresh 30 year high of 3.2 percent."


Still, the TV media is reporting just the headline. Republicans must be unhappy as the high unemployment rate was their main weapon heading into the november...

Views/opinions welcome...

[ttwarrior1]

its because they count christmas help and temp 4 hour a day workers now

[Hotdiggity11]

its because they count christmas help and temp 4 hour a day workers now

They have been for decades.

[guitarjosh]

I don't know how anyone can say that the economy adding over 250,000 jobs is a bad thing.

[Shaudius]

Most people retire in December because of the way that benefit cycles work, I am guessing that at least a few(maybe hundreds of thousands) of people who dropped out of the workfroce from December to January were because of retirement, but obviously not all.

The fact that the number of long term unemployed has remained fairly stagnant over the last half a year or so tells me that my assertion has at least some baring in the truth.

[rickbo528]

I don't know how anyone can say that the economy adding over 250,000 jobs is a bad thing.

I don't believe for one second that 250,000 jobs were added last month.

[griz]

worry about Austrailia, we will wory about the USA

[CarpeDime]

"unemployment" and "jobs" are meaningless terms because they equate all jobs

if an economy adds 20,000 jobs with sh*tty conditions that pay 50 cents an hour, is that better than an economy that adds 10,000 jobs with positive conditions that pay 20 dollars an hour? of course not

"unemployment" and "jobs" numbers are meaningless without info on what kinds of jobs are being "gained" or "lost"

and that assumes that the numbers themselves are accurate, consistent and measured appropriately, which of course they aren't

anyone who uses "employment" or "jobs" numbers as the basis of anything is either a fool or being intentionally deceptive

[FourLengthsClear]

"unemployment" and "jobs" are meaningless terms because they equate all jobs

if an economy adds 20,000 jobs with sh*tty conditions that pay 50 cents an hour, is that better than an economy that adds 10,000 jobs with positive conditions that pay 20 dollars an hour? of course not

"unemployment" and "jobs" numbers are meaningless without info on what kinds of jobs are being "gained" or "lost"

and that assumes that the numbers themselves are accurate, consistent and measured appropriately, which of course they aren't

anyone who uses "employment" or "jobs" numbers as the basis of anything is either a fool or being intentionally deceptive

Wow. That is by far the most coherent, lucid and utterly sensible post I have seen you make, sir.

[ACoochy]

"unemployment" and "jobs" are meaningless terms because they equate all jobs

if an economy adds 20,000 jobs with sh*tty conditions that pay 50 cents an hour, is that better than an economy that adds 10,000 jobs with positive conditions that pay 20 dollars an hour? of course not

"unemployment" and "jobs" numbers are meaningless without info on what kinds of jobs are being "gained" or "lost"

and that assumes that the numbers themselves are accurate, consistent and measured appropriately, which of course they aren't

anyone who uses "employment" or "jobs" numbers as the basis of anything is either a fool or being intentionally deceptive

Sharp post loshak just reporting how the masses will interpret this news, that's all. . . Its had a +EV effect on the markets thus far

[d2bets]

It was in the midst of collapse when Bush left office. The bottom was March/April 2009. Seems kinda unfair to tag those few months on Obama, doesn't it. He hadn't even warmed the seat yet. That's like firing an NFL coach midseason at 0-8 and blaming the new coach for missing the playoffs.

[mnpickle]

It was in the midst of collapse when Bush left office. The bottom was March/April 2009. Seems kinda unfair to tag those few months on Obama, doesn't it. He hadn't even warmed the seat yet. That's like firing an NFL coach midseason at 0-8 and blaming the new coach for missing the playoffs.

It depends on what the coach promised...

[MC PICKS]

Obama has lost over 3 million jobs since he came into office, the real unemployment % is around 21, obama likes to fudge the numbers since he is in nonstop campaign mode. Of course there is gonna be a spike in less unemployment after all the temp hires in november and december, it will be up over 10% as far as what they count by the fall along with over 4 dollar a gallon gas, obama is an epic failure.

[secretstash]

they dont count the long term unemployed. greater than 2 yrs u fall off .. google 99ers .. there is 10s of millions of these people.

-stash

[Carseller4]

So you mean to tell me that after 3 years and 5 Trillion dollars added to the debt that we are at the same unemployment rate as when Obama took office.

Doesn't say much for Obama.

[guitarjosh]

So you mean to tell me that after 3 years and 5 Trillion dollars added to the debt that we are at the same unemployment rate as when Obama took office.

Doesn't say much for Obama.

It isn't Obama, it is Keynesian economics.

[crustyme]

just more proof that neocons are happier having their own guy destroy the country than have a democratic president succeed and make their lives better.

[wantitall4moi]

They make fake jobs that dont pay shit to pad the numbers, and add that to people who stopped filing or are ineligible to file as unemployed and voila you have a seeming improved job outlook.

People that were out of work when he took office are still out of work, add that to the new ones since he got there and I dont see how they can say it is better. But thats what happens when people believe everything they read nstead of using their brains and common sense.

But I suppose some guy who was making 45K in 2006 and is now making 16K but has a job isnt unemployed.