U.S. Companies Added Few Workers in December: "Employers added only 1,000 new workers to the nation's payrolls last month, the Labor Department reported today, providing further evidence that the economic recovery is continuing to elude the labor market.
The stagnation in job creation occurred even though the nation's unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in December from 5.9 percent in November.
... David Rosenberg, chief economist at Merrill Lynch, noted that with the revisions the economy had failed to generate more than 100,000 jobs for 11 straight months.
"This is a streak that has never happened before, outside of recessions, at any time over the past 50 years, Mr. Rosenberg wrote."
He added that at this stage of an economic expansion, the "typical" monthly increase in payroll employment is 145,000. "

So where are all these unemployed people going, when they "fall off" the unemployment rolls, since most didn't get jobs? "the lower number is due to the fact that the overall labor market shrank by 309,000 workers in December, the government said. "

What this doublespeak means is that 300,000 adults who were formerly working are still unemployed.

More graphically, the population of San Francisco, for example, probably has about 300,000 working adults among its half million inhabitants. Suddenly, their benefits ran out, and they "fell off" the employment rolls. The whole city is unemployed without benefits!

Now, if you were an editor, and the whole city was unemployed, would you lead with the politicians acting like they have done some great miracle. "The unemployment rate has dropped again!" Or would you say, this is outrageous! Three years into the Bush administration, two years into the greatest tax cuts in history, with the biggest budget deficit in history, the whole popluation of SF is unemployed, and the government cuts off it's benefits. Get the bums out!

What a hollow sham. This country has never seemed so like the Soviet Union to me, as it does under this "conservative" Bush regime.

It's a one party state. It's radical. It's careless of the truth and the law. Citizens are losing their civil liberties. It forces client states to do what it wills or invades those it wants to. It kills or imprisons people without trial or due process. It lies, misleads, twists the truth, employs shameless propaganda, and pursues policies that will ruin the country. Is it now the evil empire?
- posted by geoff @ #