Apparently not. After examining the government's report, statistician John Williams (shadowstats.com) reported that the jobs were "phantom jobs" created by "concurrent seasonal factor adjustments." In other words, the 151,000 jobs cannot be found in the unadjusted underlying data. The jobs were the product of seasonal adjustments concocted by the BLS.
As usual, the financial press did no investigation and simply reported the number handed to the media by the government.
The relevant information, the information that you need to know, is that the level of payroll employment today is below the level of 10 years ago. A smaller number of Americans are employed right now than were employed a decade ago.
Think about what that means. We have had a decade of work force growth from youngsters reaching working age and from immigration, legal and illegal, but there are fewer jobs available to accommodate a decade of work force entrants than before the decade began.
During two years from December 2007 - December 2009, the US economy lost 8,363,000 jobs, according to the payroll jobs data. As of October 2010, payroll jobs purportedly have increased by 874,000, an insufficient amount to keep up with labor force growth. However, John Williams reports that 874,000 is an overestimate of jobs as a result of the faulty "birth-death model," which overestimates new business start-ups during recessions and underestimates business failures. Williams says that the next benchmark revision due out next February will show a reduction in current employment by almost 600,000 jobs. This assumes, of course, that the BLS does not gimmick the benchmark revision. If Williams is correct, it is more evidence that the hyped recovery is non-existent.
Discounting the war production shutdown at the end of World War II, which was not a recession in the usual sense, Williams reports that "the current annual decline [in employment] remains the worst since the Great Depression, and should deepen further."
In short, there is no employment data, and none in the works, unless gimmicked, that supports the recovery myth. The US rate of unemployment, if measured according to the methodology used in 1980, is 22.5%. Even the government's broader measure of unemployment stands at 17%. The 9.6% reported rate is a concocted measure that does not include discouraged workers who have been unable to find a job after 6 months and workers who who want full time jobs but can only find part-time work.
Another fact that is seldom, if ever, reported, is that the payroll jobs data reports the number of jobs, not the number of people with jobs. Some people hold two jobs; thus, the payroll report does not give the number of employed people.
The BLS household survey measures the number of people with jobs. The same October that reported 151,000 new payroll jobs reported, according to the household survey, a loss of 330,000 jobs.
The American working class has been destroyed. The American middle class is in its final stages of destruction. Soon the bottom rungs of the rich themselves will be destroyed.
The entire way through this process the government will lie and the media will lie.
The United States of America has become the country of the Big Lie. Those who facilitate government and corporate lies are well rewarded, but anyone who tells any truth or expresses an impermissible opinion is excoriated and driven away.
But we "have freedom and democracy." We are the virtuous, indispensable nation, the salt of the earth, the light unto the world.
Reader Comments
... has reached its full potential.
Taking the brunt for London's crimes: The American Way...
When the original 150th. number was released I made a post here on SOTT sayin' that it was joke. I see there's confirmation. These numbers were my bread and butter for a number of years.
However, 20% unemployment means that you still oparate at 80% capacity. It's not the end of the world. I can understand the frustration but 9/11 was designed to transfer jobs to China were wages are infinitely much lower and that of course means a huge increase in Corporate profits.Although I believe the numbers in the article are correct there's a bit of exagerration. The american working and middle class have not exactly been destroyed. Evolved is more like it. For a number of years you enjoyed some of the highest incomes in the world. At the same time there was a huge debt accumulation nobody paid attention to. What happened was bound to happen, you can't keep on getting and spending uncontrollably forever. Also part of the high unemployment figure is due to loss of what built the U.S. originally : "The work ethic." It's natural to be lost as the younger generations found lots of things "ready made" for them. That trend I think is more dangerous. As for the rich getting destroyed , well that will be hard to happen as in times of crises they feed the system with more and in return the system keeps them rich. Finally, lies were told since forever. It's how the system works. Usually the truth is revealed after some time depending on its importance.
Success' was 'The American Dream' which should have been called 'The American Nightmare!
(some sort of glitch...my full comment wasn't added) What I said prior to the partial sentence published:
Actually the general public has been receiving less income for their labors since the 1970s. I wish I had the links to support my statement, but the information is out there. We were earning less money than years prior to the 70s - its a fact!
Throughout my time as an adult, I tried to 'pull myself up by my bootstraps' (felt more like 'dragging myself up') to obtain and reach 'The American Dream' of my parent's generation.
Finally, I learned, that it was nothing I had control over...it was 'The American Nightmare!'
I tell every youngster I meet not to go into debt for an education, I encourage them to teach themselves. If they take the education loans, they are going guarantee themselves to be 'indentured for LIFE' with all the high interest rate loans for an education to work in a field (if they're lucky enough to keep that job) that will not pay them enough for their loans, nor will these loans be dismissed in bankruptcy.
The system is rigged: THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE!
It's the American Dream because the PTB draw you in and plant illusions of ideas in your head and then make you believe these were yours.
I love having a SOTT Focus to go with the new look. Kudos to the SOTT team on a beautiful new layout!!