The financial media has recently featured stories with an upbeat outlook for the U.S. economy.
For example: The economy is on track for “the fastest growth in a decade” (Associated Press), and “Experts expect jobs aplenty in ’15” (USA Today).
This upbeat tone is related to December’s U.S. jobless rate of 5.6%, its lowest since June 2008.
But Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, offers a different perspective on the jobs data. His February 3 article on Gallup’s website was headlined, “The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment.”
Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening.
None of them will tell you this … If you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. … Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. …
If you perform a minimum of one hour of work in a week and are paid at least $20 … you’re not officially counted as unemployed … .
If you … are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find … the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%.
There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate … amounts to a Big Lie.
A Federal Reserve chart shows that the civilian labor force has been shrinking for 15 years.
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Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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