Dirty little (not so) secret: 1,206,000 FEWER people employed in July

[TahitiNut]

Yes, that's right. According to the latest employment figures, there were 1,206,000 fewer people employed in July than a month earlier!

Not only were there 109,000 fewer people employed in the private sector in July than in June, there were 1,097,000 fewer people employed by government.

Guess who?

If you guessed it was mostly teachers, the duck dropped down and gave you fifty dollars.

There were 95,400 fewer people employed at the state level in the education sector, and 1,081,800 fewer people employed at the local education level. All told, that's 1,177,200 jobs in education that were "lost" - hopefully to be "found" again in September. (Sadly, I doubt it.) But government picked up some of those jobs elsewhere - typically teachers' summer jobs.

Why is everyone saying 32,000 more people employed? This is the result of "seasonal adjustment" of the employment figures (and statistical models used) assembled for July. And teachers are 'seasonal' jobs.

So, the claim that "there were 32,000 'new jobs' created in July" is false on its face. It is, in fact, a violation of integrity as well. It's not the purpose of 'seasonal adjustment' of jobs figures to make such specious proclamations about such small numbers. It's intended to make overall employment trends more visible. But that visibility is obscured by the shit being piled on top of the numbers by the Busholini Cabal. The "expectation" of 200,000 more jobs was not at all optimistic since 200,000 would have been below average.

They're failing - and they're trying to delude people that's OK. It isn't.


Remember, nobody's getting paid for doing a "seasonally adjusted" job. No social security taxes are paid on those "jobs." No children are fed from such "jobs."

---

Table B-1. Employees on nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail" is our friend. Use it. Enjoy it. Get your facts (close enough for government work) there.

[SheilaT]

1. How many teachers do we have

altogether in this country? Could that million plus unemployed teachers simply be those who aren't teaching because it's July?

[LifeDuringWartime]

2. most teachers work in the summer as well

either teaching summer school or through something else.

[TahitiNut]

3. 9,756,800 employed in state & local education ... 12,100 fewer

... than last year. The June-to-July "loss" of jobs represents 12.1% of that total.

These numbers are available at http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cesbtab1.htm

[TahitiNut]

4. (cough)

Just in case it hasn't been seen by many.

[chum]

5. Doesn't seem to be working anymore.

Saturday, August 7, 2004 10:32 AM

Sorry, survey does not exist. If you need to contact someone about the program or its data, please send a message to the data questions e-mail address below or call the phone number below.

[TahitiNut]

6. Table B-1? (Works for me.)

http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cesbtab1.htm

This is a very basic access point for employment data.

[KharmaTrain]

7. More Dirty Secrets:

1.) Of those job gains...most are at a lesser pay scale than they were previously, and those who got jobs are earning substantially less than those who have lost jobs as corporations continue to trim payrolls and consolidate; putting stock price ahead of company welfare to meet analyist expectations. But, shhh...don't tell anyone, we've turned the corner.

2.) The rise in oil prices is starting to ripple throughout the economy in higher food and other vital commodities...it's just a matter of time before inflation starts to kick in as sticker shock continues to silently creep along. Unlike the past where incomes generally kept pace with inflation, so the bite wasn't as deep, the backward slides in most incomes means this run-up in prices is hitting hard. But, shhh...don't tell the media that, we've turned the corner.

3.) Investment opportunities are at a near standstill...the business world is in near shutdown as the fear of terrorist attacks, the fluid domestic and international situation and a depressed consumer market is keeping a lot of companies on the sidelines; waiting to see what happens in November. The market's tumble this week is a sure indicator of trouble...but shhh...go out and spend money you don't have (it's ok, debt is a GOOD thing), since we've turned the corner.

Damn right they brought out the SwiftLiars toward the end of the week. These economic numbers not only catch this regime in yet another lie, but pretty much ensures that there will be no "upturn" in the economy that can be really used for any benefit by this regime in the election. That's a scary thing since that means they might just make another run at our pocketbooks (through deeper debt as they sense they might lose the keys to Fort Knox).

[Deja Q]

9. It speaks volumes about our society... and the cost of supply...

When the crash does occur, I know I will be one of its victims. One of billions.

However, death will be preferable to what the living will have to endure. "Operation Enduring Peak Oil". The fact that oil went up a mere couple of dollars per barrel is giving investors heart attacks. When it's confirmed that mideast resources are beyond peak, there is only one thing that WILL happen: A crash of mammoth proportion. For, in our society, the instant demand outweights supply, the COST of the supply skyrockets.

Now add in how America's outsourcing is requiring much greater needs for oil in nuclear capable countries like India and China and wince. If America pulls out of these countries, it won't be good. If these countries see the value of oil and pull a 'US' on the US regarding taking claims on oil... it'll make the Bay of Pigs seem like a country picnic.

[TahitiNut]

11. Again, however ... the 'gains' are a statistical fiction.

'Seasonal adjustment' is a euphemism for statistical fiction. In those job categories which vary by season (ski instructor, teacher, lifeguard, rough carpenter, bricklayer, etc.), the fiction falsifies the data on both the downside and upside. The purpose of this fiction isn't to actually count jobs but to make labor conditions within industries more visible in the short term (under a year). It's not that the 'gained jobs' pay less; it's that they don't pay at all because they don't exist.

There's no question, however, that middle-class jobs are being eradicated or off-shored and lower-paying jobs are highly volatile. As the economy's systemic bias against fair labor participation increases, even "professions" are increasingly corporatized, with ever-more-bloated shares of the income gleaned being gobbled up by the slave-masters.

We're also seeing book-cooking in 'productivity' as we shift even more to a service-based (janitors, gigolos, and prostitutes) economy. Service work is being continually shifted to the customer - making the customer an uncompensated laborer. ATMs, audio menus, Internet e-business, self-checkout in supermarkets ... all continue to shift service workload to the consumer. It's becoming virtually impossible for a customer to interact with an owner, even indirectly. At the same time the WalMartization of labor continues at an accelerated pace with people working off the clock and skipping breaks, even as they eschew unionization to keep the plantation owner 'happy.'

On top of all this, earned income (e.g. wages and salaries) is taxed at the highest rates while unearned income (income from the labor of others, such as inheritance or capital gains) is taxed at the lowest rates or not taxed at all (e.g. inheritance and deferred capital gains).

It's insane.

[F.Gordon]

8. What a gold mine of data

In a related report it's interesting to note that the unemployment (for July) rate for white folk dropped to 4.8%, but the unemployment rate for Blacks went up to 10.9% and the Hispanic rate went up to 6.8%.

It seems that our "booming economy" is manning the white folk lifeboats first....

Thanks for the link T-Nut!! There is also another database that provides some interesting data on federal taxes paid by income group, plus much more....more than my little brain can consume in one sitting.....

[Deja Q]

10. Is life worth living?

Getting your $30/hr job eliminated and having to work for a piddle $7/hr job instead. That doesn't begin to cover living on one's own as a liveable wage for one person is $12/hr. Now add in how the rich are getting the governemnt to shift the tax burden to us, destroy public assistance (while encouraging more corporate subsidies), AND inflation - I've seen food prices go up.

In essence, living is going to be more of a depressing challenge.

[TahitiNut]

12. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

The 'ownership class' is abdicating even the pretense of motivating the 'working class' on the basis of the higher needs (e.g. self-actualization, esteem, love) and increasingly amplifying the baser, more fundamental needs (e.g. safety, survival).

Safety. (Terra! Terra!)

Survival. (Work to live.)

By threatening people, labor and service are coerced. The 'volunteer military' thrives on economic coercion. Whistle-blowers are an endangered species, knowing that to do so is career suicide. Prolonged threats result in neuroses, paranoia, and fraternal conflict. The 'working class' is divided by its own fears. The 'ownership class' divides and subjugates. We're a nation divided within the working class itself.

One of the reasons for outrageous executive compensation is to mask the appalling reductions in compensation for those who're not agents of the 'ownership class.' When the CEO walks into the auditorium, the "average" annual compensation of those attending a company meeting increases enormously ... but the median is unchanged.

At the same time, the Busholini 'ownership class' is motivated almost solely by insatiable greed. No more do we have the pretense that wealth merely seeks to be preserved - and are wholly of a mindset that wealth has some inalienable 'right' to become even more wealthy. There's absolutely no limit to that, other than the collapse of the society itself.

The wealthy no longer accept any risk whatsoever! Risk is for the hoi polloi.

[Beetwasher]

15. Yup!

Damn well said my friend...

[stevedeshazer]

18. Maslow.

That's what it's all about, nicely done.

I think you've about got it nailed here, buddy.

[TahitiNut]

20. Thanks. It's been very clear to me for the past 30 years that ...

... corporations have lowered their underlying "management style" from the carrot of Esteem and Self-Actualization to the stick of Safety and Survival.

I actually remember (very fondly) the days when I was working at Maslow's higher levels. Not only did I have a great deal to say about the direction my career was taking, I was working on stuff that I "took on the road" (published papers and presented at International Conferences). As a guy who only completed about 1/3rd of his Masters, I was really enjoying it. It was the 70's and I thought it could only get better. I didn't come close to appreciating how 12 years of Reagan/Bush followed by Gingrich/Barr/Gramm/Lott/DeLay would wipe out that optimism and progress.


Stated another way, corporations (and society) have moved from presuming McGregor's 'Y' to dogmatically assuming McGregor's 'X' ...
X
* People inherently dislike work
* People must be coerced or controlled to do work to achieve objectives
* People prefer to be directed.

Y
* People view work as being as natural as play or rest.
* People will exercise self direction and control in the achievement of objectives that they are committed to.
* People learn to accept and seek accountability (both credits and debits).

[Shadow30]

21. just a thought....

There's been something I have been thinking about concerning the economic mess we are in and boy do I ever feel it.I have been out of work for several months now only working every once in awhile at crappy temp jobs mostly cleaning out junk houses,my father in his early 60's has lost two jobs in 2 years the first he had for over 10 years he lost because the company shut down all together, the other because there moving all the jobs were he worked out of the country.

Now I am no economist and do not claim to be so but it occurs to me that alot of the wealthy,alot of big companies are so big,so wealthy as a result of the mass consumer economy in this country.I wonder...aren't they,in the long run shooting themselves in the foot here?I mean the working class and middle class are really taking it on the chin,losing jobs like crazy,even if some new jobs are found for some of them they pay no were near as much and cannot buy as much.It occurs to me that since so many jobs are vanishing and they are not paying anywhere near as much(what would be the point of sending it all overseas otherwise?)aren't many companies in essence raising short term profits by slowly eroding away there own customer base?I mean take Henry Ford,now there were alot of things wrong with that guy(ALOT!) but he knew one thing ,that it was the people that worked at his plants that would buy the Model T.If the US working and middle class is almost gone in ten years or so and no middle or working class pops up to take its place as they are making sure of who will buy the millions and millions of whatever it is they have to sell?I know there is Europe and Japan but I have often heard it said that the US is the biggest consumer economy in the world,that for instance more BMW's are in the US then in Europe.I know if this happens there will still be some wealthy left but it seems that alot of companies in the end will go down with the rest of us because they are in essence ruining the people they want to sell there crap to.
As I have said I am no expert on this sort of thing but perhaps someone here might tell me if this has some basis in reality.

[TahitiNut]

23. Yes. Without a doubt, imho.

It has been said that the failure of capitalism will be due to the failure of capitalists to be responsible.

In the late 60's, major corporations (e.g. General Motors) recognized very clearly that their long-term survival was premised on being responsible to their communities, their employees, and their shareholders ... in that order. (I know this because I interacted with the President of GM and the Vice Chairman of the Board.) It was well-recognized that their continued ability to sell products was premised on a market able to buy them - and their employees were an important part of that market.

Somewhere in the late 70's and early 80's corporations increasingly turned their attention to government, as a totalitarian consumer, as an expense-reducer (taxes and externalized costs like pollution), and as a creator of "niche" enterprises that could, by virtue of contortions in the law, offer an opportunity to do "middleman" (brokerage, etc.) manipulations of the economy. I think the landslide started with banking deregulation, which eradicated the barriers that kept the banking industry positioned as one of the "invisible hands" on the economy. Enron is a good example of one of those "niche" industries - since Enron never actually produced energy or built transmission lines. They dealt in derivatives - legalized entitlements (the 'rights' to energy futures and transmission capacity).

All entitlements are created by government. The word 'title' is the clue. Without government, there is no "intellectual property." Without government, there is no 'title' to real estate. Without government, there is no way to create any kind of fair (or enforced bias) market for "futures."

Capital is now increasingly vested in entitlements. Example: Microsoft.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. LOL!! "the duck dropped down"...

"Say the magic woid" - You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx!

I hadn't thought of that show in a long time...made me laugh out loud!

<http://www.tvparty.com/moviemarx.html>

"A typical exchange between contestant and host:
Groucho: "Where are you from?"
Girl: "I'm from Ralph's Grocery Store."
Groucho: "You were born in a supermarket, eh? I thought supermarkets didn't make deliveries anymore. . . Oh? You're the cashier? Now it begins to register!" Groucho Marx won an Emmy in 1951 (the third year of the ceremonies) as 'Most Outstanding Personality'."

[TahitiNut]

14. Remember Gonzales G. Gonzales?

Q: What does the 'G' stand for?
A: Gonzales.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. But...but...but...the Household Survey says....

;)
That and the Dept of Labor saying those are just jobs with payrolls...sigh.

[TahitiNut]

19. Yeah... and they 'created' the same 32,000 jobs that they claimed

... were 'created' last month, too. Happily enough, however, they 'revised' June's employment numbers down by 61,000 and that makes July look like it's 'up' from June.

Who knows what happened to that other 29,000 jobs 'revised' away in June ... probably shipped overseas, since the B/D Model doesn't properly account for off-shoring.

[greekspeak]

17. Can I make an aside and get on my soapbox about the teaching profession?

There may be no profession for which I feel more sympathy and for whom I have more respect than for teachers. They pay the big bucks for their own eduction. They tollerate truly rotten children. They pay for supplies out of their own pockets. They recieve a woefully inadequate salary for the key job they do. They work hard all year, even in the summer, just to make ends meet.

What is their reward? People like Shrub and Jeb set them up for falls with programs like No Child Left Behind. Taxpayers bitch and moan about every penny they pay to school taxes. They work in substandard conditions. They are expected to achieve ridiculously high standards with almost no resources.

Teachers deserve so much better than they get. Its time America stood up and thanked teachers. Thank them with a salary commiserate with the jobs they do. Thank them with the resources and rules they need to hold classes together. Thank them by teaching children to respect the sacrifices teachers make for them every day.

[stevedeshazer]

22. Teachers don't get enough respect.

No doubt about it. The only ones who get less respect are health care, nursing home, and hospice workers.

Instead, we reward those who successfully make fortunes off the backs of the labor of others. What kind of fu**ed up society do we have here?