Ted Rall, MSNBC "Worst U.S. Jobs Data in a Year Signals Stalling Recovery," The New York Times ran as its lead headline on June 2....
Ted Rall, MSNBC "Worst U.S. Jobs Data in a Year Signals Stalling Recovery," The New York Times ran as its lead headline on June 2. The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy created 69,000 jobs during May. The three-month job-creation average was 96,000. Unemployment ticked up a tenth of a point, from 8.1% to 8.2%. Once again, the media is downplaying a blockbuster story—recovery? what recovery?—by dulling it down with a pile of dry, impenetrable statistics. Wonder why you can't find a job or get a raise, and your house has been sitting on the market for years? The new jobs numbers are the key to understanding how bad the economy is—and why it's not likely to get better any time soon. Q: If nearly 100,000 Americans per month are finding jobs, why are securities markets tumbling? A: Because it's actually a net jobs loss. The U.S. population is growing, so the work force is too. We need 125,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with population growth. "In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than three million jobs," President Obama claimed in his January 2012 State of the Union speech. True or not, a more straightforward claim would have been net job creation: 350,000 jobs over 22 months, or 15,000 per month. (Politifact rates Obama's line as Half True.) Read More
