The Liars At Labor

The economic “experts” have a lot riding on the recovery ass. Hence the notion of a jobless recovery, which is a lot like a housewarming for the homeless.

“The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 9.0 percent in January,” reports the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, at 64.2%, the labor force participation rate … is now at a 26-year low, the lowest since March of 1984. The “labor force as a percentage of total population” has plummeted.

The reason for the “drop” in the unemployment rate, as the labor force shrinks from 86.2 million to 83.9 million—or 2.2 million in one year!—is the rise in the number of discouraged individuals who’ve left the labor force.

The more accurate, less finessed, number from the Liars at Labor is the U-6, which includes the unemployed and people who would like to work, but who have not looked for a job recently, as well as those involuntarily working part-time. “Not-seasonally adjusted U-6 surged from 16.6% to 17.3%” in February.