Unemployment Rate in One Graph

Everyone is celebrating that the unemployment rate dropped today. Yay! I guess happy days are here again!

Not so much. Look at this chart.

The unemployment rate (the blue line) is at it's lowest rate Since September of 2008. That's good right?

The reason that the unemployment rate is at a 5 year low is because the amount of people looking for work (the labor force participation rate) is at a thirty year low. Thirty. Years. If you're not an economist, what this means is that if you're not "looking for work" you're not counted as "unemployed". Therefore, we're just not counting as many people as "unemployed" not because they have jobs, but because they don't have jobs and aren't looking for jobs.

The red line represents what the unemployment rate would actually be if we used the same numbers of people looking for jobs as we did in June 2009.

So you can dance the happy dance all you want because the unemployment rate went down, but you're kind of fooling yourself if you think it went down because the economy is heating up.

Remember, First Quarter GDP was 0.1%. That's almost no growth in the economy at all. Excuse me if I refrain from doing a happy dance just yet.

Great Career Advice from Mike Rowe

Happy Monday.

Here's some good great advice from Mike Rowe for anyone out there looking for a job. It applies to every prospective applicant, from law students to high school graduates.

Stop looking for the “right” career, and start looking for a job. Any job. Forget about what you like. Focus on what’s available. Get yourself hired. Show up early. Stay late. Volunteer for the scut work. Become indispensable.

He's right.

August Jobs Report

If you've just been reading the headlines, you've missed the actual story. Apparently, the economy ain't all roses. I think this chart is pretty revealing:

On the other hand, it's Friday.

If $15/hour Is So Great, Why Not $200/hour?

The answer is of course, obvious. So why do so many people think that doubling wages for fast food workers is a good idea?

 

Unemployment Rate Drops to 7.6%

The March employment statistics are out today, and one thing is clear from these numbers: people have given up looking for work. We added 88,000 jobs here in the US, but that was dwarfed by the decline in the labor force by 496,000. Yep, about a half-million people just dropped out of the labor force last month.

This was the biggest monthly jump in folks dropping out of the labor force since January 2012, when the BLS did its census reset. To put things in a historical perspective, the labor force participation rate is now at 63.3% - the lowest since 1979! However, the unemployment rate doesn't count those people anymore, so unemployment fell to 7.6%.

Happy days are here again!

Losing people in the workforce making the unemployment rate better would be like the Braves saying they're giving up trying to get hits when they face Cliff Lee in an effort to raise their batting average.

A wise man I know has accurately commented that "we have reached the point on many individual's labor economics curve where not working is the most attractive option". That's a sad commentary of the state of our country right now. We had a big recession in 2008....five years ago. And we haven't been able to pull out of the ditch. People are just giving up.

What would the unemployment rate be if we actually assumed a normal employment force? Oh, just a rosy 11.6%.

In the meantime, everyone in charge wants to argue about same-sex marriage and  gun control. It's probably because they have no freakin' clue as to how to actually deal with the economic problems we face.

Sorry to be an Eeyore on a Friday, but I wish I had better news.

Is This an Economic "Recovery"?

Everyone is talking about how great the economy is doing now. However, I see that we have a record high number of people "not in the labor force". That's not what an actual recovery looks like.

The number of Americans designated as "not in the labor force" in February was 89,304,000, a record high, up from 89,008,000 in January, according to the Department of Labor. This means that the number of Americans not in the labor force increased 296,000 between January and February.

I don't see how a record high number of people not in the labor force is a sign of a strong economy. In a strong economy (one that produces valuable goods and services) you have people participating. This seems like the opposite.

[h/t to Instapundit]

Unemployment Up .1%

7.9%

Hey, don't complain. This is what y'all voted for. I'm sure the President is focused on jobs though.

Chicago Teachers on Strike

[UPDATE] This post has generated a fair amount of comments, and a good deal of discussion. That's good, but it is not my intention to simply anger people. Constructive and civil dialogue is what I am after. In that vein, after consideration, my original post painted teachers with too broad of a brush.

I don't think teachers are dumb. Additionally, the vast majority of them work hard. My main point was reserved solely for the teachers who are currently on strike, and they are a minuscule fraction of the total number of teachers in the country. Also, just because something is easy to do doesn't necessarily make it easy to teach. Just because someone can add 2 + 2 doesn't mean that they can teach it to a room full of kids. I know plenty of guys who are great shooters, but they can't teach new shooters very well.

There is also a huge difference between the teachers' union and teachers. I failed to make that distinction.

A commenter made the point that teachers have to deal with unruly students too much, and consequently, cannot actually teach. Therefore, the teachers believe the proposed standardized test score benchmarks are unfairly high. I don't know what to say to that other than the best teachers I had were the ones who demanded the most. Isn't that kind of the opposite of what lowering the benchmarks is?

How to Handle a Mountain Lion in Your Office

I think that most people would be happy to be in an office because that means they would be employed. In any event, here are the tips. My favorite part:

If it’s not attacking, “Don’t start macing it. People think they can walk up to an animal and gently deal with it. You can’t. Just get away from it.”

Good idea. Don't antagonize a wild animal. As always, Permanent Press is always here to help in situations where wild animals are loose. Mountain lions in the office, tigers in the bathroom...you know...whatever.

The Unemployment Rate is Up to 9.1%

Looks like we're not out of the woods just yet...

The Unemployment Rate is Down to 8.6%

Unemployment is now at 8.6%. It's either because people have found jobs or have stopped looking. Which one do you think it is? Yeah...me, too.

Unemployment Rate Graph

Unemployment time! The graph itself is not really depressing. Mostly, it shows the absolute failure of our government to do anything to stop the recession. Remember when it was absolutely necessary to pass the huge stimulus to "save or create" jobs? Here's how it's working out (or not working out):