Boasting About Job Growth a Dangerous Game for GOP

[papau]

http://www.nypost.com/business/30009.htm

BOASTING ABOUT JOB GROWTH A DANGEROUS GAME FOR GOP

By JOHN CRUDELE


September 7, 2004 -- THE Republicans now need to be very careful. The employment report for August may have given the White House some breathing room, but not that much. <snip>

1. As I've been saying, most of the job gains this year have come from assumptions made by the Labor Department about new companies that are being created. In the just-released August report, for instance, the government assumed that these new companies (invisible to everyone except forecasters) had created 120,000 jobs. So, only 24,000 of those 144,000 new jobs announced last Friday were actually counted. The rest may not exist. <snip>


2. Even growth of 144,000 is sub-par for an economy that supposedly grew at 2.7 percent last quarter. The job market should be expanding by 250,000 positions a month under normal circumstances.<snip>


3. September job growth could be disappointing, although not disastrous. The Labor Department's assumptions on jobs created by new companies may start to weaken between now and year's end. <snip>


4. The unemployment rate that you and I see in the headlines may have dropped to an impressive 5.4 percent from 5.5 percent, but that doesn't tell the entire story. That number improved mostly because the size of the nation's workforce dropped. People are still discouraged when looking for work.Another Labor Department figure (called the U-6 for those who want to look it up) shows that the unemployment rate is steady at a mind-numbing 9.5 percent when you count people who are out of work and too discouraged to keep looking. <snip>


5. You've already read enough here and elsewhere about the issue of job quality. Even if these new jobs do actually exist, many of the positions now being created don't stack up well against the ones lost. <snip>


6. And lastly, the Republicans should be concerned that many other indicators are showing that the economy — never robust to begin with — started slowing even before higher oil prices began picking consumers' pockets.<snip>

[aquart]

1. This is in the NEW YORK POST???????????????????

Holy Shit.

[Warpy]

3. The NY Post broke the original story

about how the job creation numbers are a fantasy derived from an actuarial formula used by the BLS two months ago. I think they're breaking the stories because they know the morons who read Murdoch papers won't pay any attention to them.

This gang of thieves and religious lunatics are scamming us six ways from Sunday, folks. An honest acocunting would probably tell you we're in the beginning of a depression, not just a mild recession.

Oh, and the last week of every month, predictable as sunrise and sunset, they announce that the recession is over and great times are here once again.

Of course, you're not really buying that, are you?

[nycmjkfan]

2. JOHN CRUDELE

Will be getting a knock on his door soon!