Warner Todd Huston
Unemployment worsens: what happened to 3.5 million workers, Mr. President?
By Warner Todd Huston
Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge asks an interesting question about the latest jobs data that the Obama administration has released to the public — and to a mostly unquestioning Old Media. As Durden calculates it, 3.5 million workers have mysteriously disappeared from the work force. If this is true then the unemployment rate is a lot higher than that being bandied about by the administration.
According to Durden the data show that there is actually a workforce of 157.4 million workers as opposed to the 153.9 million that the administration has claimed. So, where did 3.5 million workers go?
Durden says, "labor force participation has now dropped to the lowest rate it has been since 1984, at 64.5%. Assuming a reversion to the long-term average participation rate of 66%, means that the civilian labor force is in reality 157.4 million as opposed to the disclosed 153.9 million, a delta of 3.5 million currently unaccounted for."
After that, Durden had a question for President Obama. "Maybe someone can ask the president during his imminent press conference what happened to the unemployed population, which would have been 18.3 if this labor force delta was incorporated, resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.6%."
Would it be a surprise if the Obama administration has fiddled with the numbers to present a false image of just how bad it is out there?
© Warner Todd Huston
November 7, 2010
Tyler Durden of Zero Hedge asks an interesting question about the latest jobs data that the Obama administration has released to the public — and to a mostly unquestioning Old Media. As Durden calculates it, 3.5 million workers have mysteriously disappeared from the work force. If this is true then the unemployment rate is a lot higher than that being bandied about by the administration.
According to Durden the data show that there is actually a workforce of 157.4 million workers as opposed to the 153.9 million that the administration has claimed. So, where did 3.5 million workers go?
Durden says, "labor force participation has now dropped to the lowest rate it has been since 1984, at 64.5%. Assuming a reversion to the long-term average participation rate of 66%, means that the civilian labor force is in reality 157.4 million as opposed to the disclosed 153.9 million, a delta of 3.5 million currently unaccounted for."
After that, Durden had a question for President Obama. "Maybe someone can ask the president during his imminent press conference what happened to the unemployed population, which would have been 18.3 if this labor force delta was incorporated, resulting in an unemployment rate of 11.6%."
Would it be a surprise if the Obama administration has fiddled with the numbers to present a false image of just how bad it is out there?
© Warner Todd Huston
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