The Truth behind the 4.5 million jobs

If I see one more post on FB or tweet on Twitter about how this adminstrtation has created 4.5 million jobs, I am going to scream! This number does not tell the whole story. From the Daily Herald:

While that figure has become a White House talking point, it’s only part of the story. It’s a cherry-picked number that refers just to private sector jobs created in the last 29 months, from the trough of the recession through July. Governments — especially state and local ones — have continued shedding jobs.

The economy lost 8.8 million jobs from the time employment peaked in January 2008 until it hit bottom in February 2010. Between then and this July — the most recent month for which there are figures — just 4 million jobs have been recovered. Never since World War II has the economy been so slow to recover all the jobs lost in a downturn.

So as you can see the Obama administration is not telling the whole truth. Now I realize that is not a surprise to many of you, but the next time you hear a lib scream how this administration has created 4.5 million jobs you can take them to task. You may also want to point out to them that the jobs that are being created are low wage jobs. From the NY Times: (emphasis mine)

“The overarching message here is we don’t just have a jobs deficit; we have a ‘good jobs’ deficit,” said Annette Bernhardt, the report’s author and a policy co-director at the National Employment Law Project, a liberal research and advocacy group.

Higher-wage occupations — those with a median wage of $21.14 to $54.55 — represented 19 percent of job losses when employment was falling, and 20 percent of job gains when employment began growing again. Lower-wage occupations, with median hourly wages of $7.69 to $13.83, accounted for 21 percent of job losses during the retraction. Since employment started expanding, they have accounted for 58 percent of all job growth.
The occupations with the fastest growth were retail sales (at a median wage of $10.97 an hour) and food preparation workers ($9.04 an hour). Each category has grown by more than 300,000 workers since June 2009.

So this administration likes to talk about jobs being created and in reality they are just entry level retail jobs.

Finally the labor force participation rate has been shrinking since Obama took office.  Neal Lipschutz of the Wall Street Journal does a great job of explaining this:

First a definition: The labor force participation rate is that percentage of the adult population that is employed or actively seeking employment.
In August, this group was 63.5% of the population. That was the lowest figure since September 1981, when it also stood at 63.5%, according to the Labor Department‘s Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For men, the August participation rate figure was 69.8%. That’s the lowest on record. The records of the Labor Department began in 1948.

So to recap the 4.5 million number is cherry picked, the jobs created are low wage jobs, and the labor participation rate has been shrinking. Now that you are armed with the truth you can point out facts to all of your liberal friends!

RR

The Jobs President

From Investors Business Daily interview with Bernie Marcus co-founder of Home Depot:

IBD: If you could sit down with Obama and talk to him about job creation, what would you say?
Marcus: I'm not sure Obama would understand anything that I'd say, because he's never really worked a day outside the political or legal area.

I think he is absolutely right. We spent 1 trillion dollars on a stimulus that failed. This President has surrounded himself with people who know nothing about job creation.
The unemployment numbers out this week show a decrease in the rate to 9.1%, while adding only 117K jobs. Keep in mind that 200K jobs a month are needed to make any significant changes to the unemployment rate. The response from the White House "Things are going to get better," Obama said.

We shall see Mr. President, we shall see.

RR

NPR: Fair and Balanced

NPR has been posing as a "fair news organization" for quite sometime. After the firing of Juan Williams, I thought the nation as a whole saw them for who they really are: a liberal organization. You will hear claims of how fair they have been throughout their history, but I would take issue with that. I was glad to see this video that tells the story of their funding and they even mention Juan Williams. Enjoy!

RR

The Tax Cut Mess

Well this is what I know.

- Sen. Obama and most of the democrats called the Bush tax cuts, cuts for the rich. I find this to be humorous that now we are so worried about the middle class. Are these taxes just for the rich or are they for all Americans? If they are for all Americans, when will the democrats apologize for characterizing these tax cuts as just for the rich.
- All democrats listen very closely. You do not have a leg to stand on. You have been in power (Congress) since 2007 and have had a democratic President for almost 2 years. You could have passed new tax laws at any point during that time. You instead chose to focus on health care, cap and trade, don't ask don't tell, and other issues that you deemed more important. When democrats blame the lack of an extension on the tax cuts on Republicans it is a flat out lie. Either you are really bad with math (255-180) (58-40 +2 Independents who caucus with the Dems) Is enough to get any bill passed for example healthcare.
- I am all for lowering the deficit. That is why I have taken the position of letting all of the tax cuts expire. Dems are all about raising taxes and dems claim we need more revenue, let them all expire. Let's see what happens. Will this really help close the gap? or will dems find something else to spend this new found revenue on?

RR

Chris Matthews gets checked