By Alden L. Benton
Mary Chapin Carpenter once sang “…the stars may lie, but the numbers never do.” Perhaps, but one thing is as certain as death and taxes and that is politicians lie. Nowhere is this more evident than in the official unemployment numbers.
Before you get too giddy about the January unemployment figures, let’s take a closer look at the numbers.
According to an article at Conservativebyte.com, the January unemployment figure dropped to 8.3 per cent. On the surface, that is good news, but nearly 13 million Americans are still out of work.
Looking more closely, 43 percent, more than 5 million people have been out of work for more than six months.
According to Conservativebyte.com, “The number of unemployed Americans last month fell by 339,000, the fifth largest drop since January 2009. But there was an even much more shockingly large number — almost 1.2 million additional Americans were classified in January as not being in the labor force.” [emphasis added]
When a worker gives up looking for work or when his unemployment checks run out, he no longer counts as part of the workforce. With fewer people counted as unemployed, the workforce appears smaller. When people rejoin the workforce, the unemployment rate drops, but that drop does not accurately reflect reality because it ignores a large segment of the population who would like to work.
It is good news that 339,000 people found jobs, but 1.2 million did not.
In January 2009 when Obama became president, 11.6 million Americans were out of work and 23 per cent had been out of work more than six months.
After three years of Obamanomics, unemployment stands at 12.8 million with 43 per cent out of work for more than six months. There is no way to spin these dismal numbers into a “recovery.”
In 2008, 28.2 million Americans received food stamp assistance. By the end of 2011, 44.7 million people received food stamps, an increase of 16.5 million people.
Don’t let the president’s pretty words fool you. The nation’s economy is in the toilet.
Things on Obama’s watch have not gotten better. His policies have made things worse. Now millions of Americans have no hope except for a regime change in Washington come November.
© 2012 Alden L. Benton/Independence Creek Enterprises. All rights reserved.
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