LD Jackson Labor Numbers Obama Doesn’t Want You To Know

HOW ABOUT THOSE LABOR NUMBERS?

After yesterday’s post about Barack Obama’s revelation that he is now in favor of gay marriage, I wanted to find something else to write about. I am tired of the distractions and the campaign rhetoric that have all been designed to take our focus off the issues that should trouble everyone in America. Really, it is transparent, the way Obama has shifted positions on gay marriage. It is purely political maneuvering, in its finest form. If you don’t think it is working, take a few minutes to browse the websites of the liberal media. ABC and CNN should provide plenty of evidence that they are trying to change the subject. They really don’t want us to talk about the economy, or the labor numbers that help tell the real story of how Americans are managing this dismal economy.

I know Fox News can be slanted to the right, but not nearly as much as the rest of the media is slanted to the left. At least, they had an article this morning that wasn’t about Obama’s gay marriage evolution. Instead, it had the audacity to discuss the unemployment rate. I’m not talking about the 8.1% that the Labor Department is touting as proof that things are getting better. No, I’m talking about the real unemployment rate. The labor numbers that Obama would just as soon keep hidden. That’s why the numbers are crunched and redistributed as something that is good, then quietly revised a few days later, after they are sure no one will notice.

The Labor Department every month publishes the nation’s unemployment rate, which is now hovering at roughly 8 percent after peaking at more than 10 percent in 2009.

But is that decline a result of thousands of Americans going back to work — or thousands throwing in the towel on the job hunt?

The answer lies in the numbers.

Remember what I said about the numbers being crunched? I am a firm believer that numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. That may not be so popular with people wanting to make this President look good, but it’s the plain and simple fact. Obama wants us to believe the economy is better, but the numbers really do tell a different story.

If the percentage of adult Americans in the labor force — that being the total number of people who are employed or looking for work — were the same as it was during the end of the Bush administration, the April jobless rate would be at 11.1 percent.

That’s 3 percentage points higher than the 8.1 percent reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics this month.

The agency’s official monthly unemployment number is calculated by dividing the number of unemployed into the number of working-age Americans who either have a job or are looking for one.

However, a statistic known as the “labor force participation rate” is key. That’s the percentage of the adult population that is employed or looking for work — in other words, the labor force. The lower the number, the worse the employment situation.

And it’s a figure that’s been trending steadily downward over the past decade. The lower number reflects a startling reality — a smaller share of the working-age population is looking for work.

See, that’s the thing. The real unemployment rate should be higher than 8.1%, mainly because so many people are simply dropping out of the official workforce. They have been looking for work for so long, they have finally given up and stopped looking. They may be working for cash, much to the chagrin of the IRS, or they may not be working at all.

How else can you explain the unemployment rate dropping, when only 115,000 jobs were added from March to April. At the same time, 342,000 people decided it was no longer worth the effort to continue looking for a job.

This is why Obama doesn’t want us to focus on the economy. This is why he has worked so hard to change the subject to something, anything, other than the economy. Birth control, war on women, and now gay marriage have all served his purpose well. It’s up to people like you and me to make sure these distractions do not work. Let’s keep this about the issues that really matter in this election. Let’s tell the story of the labor numbers, and the economy, that Obama doesn’t want us to tell.