Very few others are saying it, so I will. Congratulations, Mr. President.

[progree]

17. "unemployment rate ... they drop several categories, like long term unemployed people" - Not true

As long as a jobless person has looked for work within the last 4 weeks, and says s(he) wants a job, s(he) is counted as unemployed in the headline unemployment rate statistic -- U-3 -- currently 6.1% -- no matter how long s(he) has been out of work.

As long as a jobless person has looked for work within the last 12 months, and says s(he) wants a job, s(he) is counted as unemployed in what is often referred to as the "underemployment rate" -- U-6 -- currently 12.1% -- no matter how long s(he) has been out of work.

http://bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm
Definitions of alternative measures of unemployment: http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm

Granted, many people who have been jobless a long time have also given up looking for work -- and that they have stopped looking for work in the past 4 weeks (or past 12 months) is what drops them out of the unemployment rate statistic U-3 (or U-6).


Here's another myth, while I'm at it:

# Myth: "those who have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits are not counted as unemployed. If they were counted, the official unemployment rate would be much higher" (you often hear this claim from the RepubliCONS when a Democratic president is in the White House, and vice versa when a RepubliCON is in the White House).

# Fact: the count of the unemployed and the unemployment rate is NOT a count of those receiving unemployment benefits, nor is unemployment benefit receiver status factored at all into any of the official unemployment rate statistics (U1, U2, U3, U4, U5, U6). Rather, the unemployment rate is based on a survey of 60,000 households chosen at random. See: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm (and search the page for the word "insurance&quot or Google the below line::
"How the Government Measures Unemployment" cps_htgm.htm
and search the page for the word "insurance"

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I'm not saying it hasn't been a slow slow recovery from the bottom. And we are far from fully recovered (in May for the first time we've reached the point where we regained the payroll jobs we lost during the Great Recession -- but meanwhile, during the past 7 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the population has grown by I forget what amount such that 7 million more jobs would be needed to return the labor market back to where it was.

Nor am I arguing that it's a good job market. I do agree with Fed Chair Janet Yellen that the modest unemployment rate (U-3) is not giving us the full picture of weakness in the labor market. The multi-decade low in the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) that we're at is only about half due to the Boomer retirements, the other half is a lot of discouraged working age people who have given up the job search. And then a lot of the new jobs are part-time, and in low-wage sectors.

On the other hand, I am saying it’s a fantastic job market compared to what Bush left us. And it's a miracle given that the RepubliCONS have controlled the House since Jan 2011 and have filibustered the Senate since the Dems lost their brief 60-vote advantage back in 2009 or 2010. Comparisons between Bush and Obama are all over the link at my signature line.