Obama and much of the US media has recently managed to paint a bright picture of jobs recovery this quarter. Unfortunately, reality begs to differ. The perception was manufactured with clever manipulation of the data. This fantastic analysis, by Daniel R. Amerman at Financial Sense takes a candle to the lie. From the Article:
"When we pierce through this statistical smoke and mirrors and factor back in [...] 9 million jobless whom the government has defined out of existence, then the true unemployment rate is 19.9% and rising, and not 8.3% and falling. [...]
Since 2007, the Constant Workforce Participation unemployment rate has risen from 9.6% to 19.9%. This increase of 10.3% for a labor pool of 160 million people means 16.5 million additional jobless people since 2007.
The difference between 6.7 million missing jobs with a rapidly improving jobs picture, and 16.5 million missing jobs with unemployment still rising, is the difference between night and day. It is the difference between a recession being brought under control - and a depression that continues to worsen."
It's crazy just how easily data can be manipulated....and how readily the American public just believes whatever statistics are trotted out. I've always found the way unemployment stats are counted to be pretty nuts [and underhanded] - it's nice to know I'm not alone in my assessment.
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