Easy Times (9/3/10)

After so much good economic news of late, the sunny optimism was bound to concretely manifest itself sooner or later.

Celebrate good times, my friends:

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little (-54,000) in August, and the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Government employment fell, as 114,000 temporary workers hired for the decennial census completed their work. Private-sector payroll employment continued to trend up modestly (+67,000).

The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) declined by 323,000 over the month to 6.2 million. In August, 42.0% of unemployed persons had been jobless for twenty-seven weeks or more. (See table A-12.)

In August, the civilian labor force participation rate (64.7 percent) and the employment-population ratio (58.5 percent) were essentially unchanged.
(See table A-1.)

The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) increased by 331,000 over the month to 8.9 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job. (See table A-8.)

About 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force in August, little changed from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior twelve months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey. (See table A-16.)

Among the marginally attached, there were 1.1 million discouraged workers in August, an increase of 352,000 from a year earlier. (The data are not seasonally adjusted.) Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them. The remaining 1.3 million persons marginally attached to the labor force had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey for reasons such as school attendance or family responsibilities.

A few helpful edits and elaborations:

***"The unemployment rate was about unchanged at 9.6%" is inaccurate.  "The unemployment rate rose to 9.6%" is accurate.

***The "official" unemployment rate (U-3) is propaganda horsecrap.  The REAL unemployment rate (U-5, adding back "discouraged workers" and those "marginally attached to the workforce," which should be categorized together as "the long-term unemployed") is 11.0%.  Which, ironically, would have enabled the regime's "about unchanged" lie to pass veracitical muster, as that number has held steady since April.

***Unfortunately for the White House, the underemployment rate (U-6), increased to 16.7%, or one American worker out of every six.  Which, not coincidentally, is also the proportion of Americans stuck on the federal dole in one way or another.

Showing that he's a true "man of the people," while still a god-colossus towering above them, Barack Obama came down from on High today to bask in his subjects' slobbering gratitude for all his bountiful provision:

Flanked by members of his economic team – including outgoing Council of Economic Advisers Dr. Christina [The Hutt] Romer, whose replacement has yet to be named – President Obama chose to look at the silver lining in the economic clouds of today’s jobs report – not even mentioning that August saw a net job loss of 54,000 jobs.

“In the month I took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month,” the president said. “This morning, new figures show the economy produced 67,000 private sector jobs in August, the eighth consecutive month of private job growth. Additionally, the numbers for July were revised upward to 107,000. Now that’s positive news, and it reflects the steps we’ve already taken to break the back of this recession.”

The net job loss for August is largely because of the layoffs of 114,000 Census temporary workers. 

Another thing The One didn't mention?  That downgrade of 730,000 jobs from full-time to part-time that drove up the underemployment rate, reflecting the steps he's already taken to break the back of this economy.

B.O. acts like a man who has a pesky mole in his backyard digging holes in it.  No matter how many times he whacks the mole, it keeps coming back and digging new holes.  He thought he had "fixed" the economy with Hogzilla I.  Just borrow and waste a trillion bucks and Christina The Hutt's super-duper multipliers would kick in, the economy would roar back to life, and he could go off and do what he REALLY wanted to do: take over health care.  So that's what he did.  In his mind, he wasn't "neglecting" the economy to obsess over his ObamaCare masterpiece, because he'd already "solved" that problem.  But as with all leftwingnut Big Government schemes, it didn't work, and now he's stuck with this mole that won't go away.

And we're to understand that there are actually still Democrats who want Barack Obama to "help"?:

A Democratic strategist toiling on the party’s House efforts refers to working on the “Titanic” (though he claims there may be some hidden life rafts). “The president keeps saying it’s a tough environment,” says a Democratic House staffer. “We know that. We want to know what he’s going to do about it.”…

“He still wants to be seen as post-partisan and bipartisan,” says a House Democratic leadership aide. “But we’re in a fight here.” Democrats expect Obama to come out swinging nonstop — bashing the R’s repeatedly and proposing economic initiatives that actually register with voters. At the same time, members of the House Democratic leadership are worried that Obama will cave and yield to GOP demands that George W. Bush’s expiring tax cuts for the wealthy be extended. “If he doesn’t do something immediately, our members will be livid,” says a House Democratic aide. “And when there’s fear of a bloodbath, it’s never too early to start the blame game.”

Actually, the economic initiatives that "actually register with voters" are the ones to which "livid" Donks are afraid their tin god is going to cave.  Which is about as likely as Christina The Hutt becoming the next Miss Universe.

What baffles me is why these Jackasses want Barry to "do something" when so many of their fellow-travelers are fleeing him like the plague.  And what is it they want him to do?  More of the same crap that got them in this predicament in the first place?  Fly clockwise 'round and 'round the planet like Superman and turn back the clock two years so that Hopenchange will work "again"?  Besides, he and they already "fixed" the economy with Hogzilla I - he said so and they shouted, "So say we all!"

Isn't "salvation" supposed to be once, for all?

Pesky mole.