© Reuters / Jason Reed
While job creation exceeded expectations for January, those experiencing long-term unemployment - those jobless for longer than six months, that is - remains at a record high.
In a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, it's revealed that those suffering the longest from the unemployment epidemic exceed any monthly statistic dating back to the Second World War. The Labor Department figures that 5.5 million would-be workers have been without employment for 27 weeks or longer, accounting for around 42.9 percent of the total tally of unemployed Americans.
The consulting firm Hamilton Place Strategies based out of Washington estimates that as many as 3 million additional unemployed workers have been without jobs for just as long but are not taken into consideration by the US government. For those unfortunate many, the Department of Labor simply stops including them in statistics once they are determined to have simply "given up" on the job hunt. They add in their study, however, that even if bettering economic conditions prompt those considered to have given up to reevaluate the job hunt, the government's "official" unemployment rate may once again surge to unfavorable numbers as the country's still staggering economy would not be able to create work for them.
Additionally, the government has identified around 2.8 million Americans "marginally attached" to the job market in January. Per their own definition, that accounts for those who want to work and have looked for working during the last year but have not concentrated their efforts on the job hunt during the last month. They are also not accounted for in the Labor Department's unemployment figure.
Speaking on Thursday before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Budget, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke addressed the issue. He admitted that the US economy "has been gradually recovering from the recent deep recession," but called long-term unemployment figures still "particularly troubling."
"More than 40 percent of the unemployed have been jobless for more than six months, roughly double the fraction during the economic expansion of the previous decade," explained Bernanke. "We still have a long way to go before the labor market can be said to be operating normally."
Gus Faucher, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services, adds to the Washington Post, "We've dug a big hole, and though we've been filling it in, we've still got a lot more to go."
The ShadowStats.com founder has been covering this for a long time. A pattern that seems to have become official under Reagan/Bush1 and expanded like a bad compass reading since then... to the 2.5 multiple so known today regarding inflation figures. The BLS numbers have been manipulated so much in recent years, that BS might be a better title for them.
Record 1.2 Million People Fall Out Of Labor Force In One Month, Labor Force Participation [Link]
Why Today's "Very, Very Suspicious" NFP Number Is Really Down 2.9 Million In Past 2 Months
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/03/2012 - 15:01 BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics Charles Biderman Congressional Budget Office Federal Tax SIFMA TrimTabs Unemployment - "Actual jobs, not seasonally adjusted, are down 2.9 million over the past two months. It is only after seasonal adjustments – made at the sole discretion of the Bureau of Labor Statistics economists – that 2.9 million fewer jobs gets translated into 446,000 new seasonally adjusted jobs."A 3.3 million "adjustment" solely at the discretion of the BLS? And this from the agency that just admitted it was underestimating the so very critical labor participation rate over the past year? Finally, Biderman wonders whether the BLS is being pressured during an election year to paint an overly optimistic picture by President Obama’s administration in light of these 'real unadjusted job change' facts. Frankly, in light of recent discoveries about the other "impartial" organization, the CBO, we don't think there is any need to wonder at all. [Link]