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

A Different Look at the Chick-fil-A Controversy

Unless you have been under a rock for the past two weeks, you are well aware of the Chick-fil-A controversy.

First a little background. After the mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel stated that Chick-fil-A did not share Chicago values, I nearly became unglued! (Note: My Alderman in Chicago and the Boston mayor made comments about Chick-fil-A as well. You can find them here and here.) What are Chicago values? Was he talking about all of the shootings that occur in Chicago? Was he talking about all of the crime in black communities? Was he talking about the high taxes Chicago imposes on its citizens? What about the high unemployment rate in the black community? Well no, he of course was saying that Chicago has no problem with the gay and lesbian community. I agree with that and for the record, I am opposed to gay marriage based on my understanding of God's Word the Holy Bible. I make no bones about it and I am willing to stand up for what I believe in. With that being said, I have plenty of gay friends and I believe as the Bible teaches we are to love everyone as God has loved us. What I do disagree with him on is the fact that Chicago has plenty of issues, why even wade into the waters on this one? Well Peter Bella of the Washington Times does a pretty good job of explaining that when he wrote the following:

There are defintely two Chicagos: working and wealthy Chicago, and poor Chicago. Politicians, especially black politicians, rarely visit poor Chicago except during election time. They stay just long enough to beg for votes. They more often frequent wealthy and White Chicago, where the campaign money is.
Blacks were promised that if black politicians were elected to represent them, their lives would change for the better. Chicago’s black elected officials on every level - city, state, and federal - have done next to nothing for the communities they allegedly serve and supposedly represent. They willfully and cheerfully ignore the very people they promised to help.

Wow. There are two points to be made here. One, he mentions politicians and votes. He states black politicians, but as anyone who follows politics knows a politician is a politician no matter race creed or color. It is safe to say Rahm was trolling for votes like all politicians. He has stated that he is in favor of gay marriage and I take him at his word. The second point, speaks to black America especially those who continue to vote for Democrats blindly. They have been burned by them time and time again, yet they go back for more. Also, when politicians decide to support one group over another, (in this case the LGBT over everyone else) they end up hurting other groups in this case blacks and Hispanics. With the black unemployment rate over 14%, I think they would welcome any business willing to hire them. If you would like to read the full article it can be found here.

RR

Unemployment Rate 8.3% for January

While this is great news that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest rate since February 2009, there is more to the numbers as Rick Santelli explains below.



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

Bump in the Road

This is the new add by Mitt Romney. I am not supporting anyone at this time, but I thought this was a very creative ad.

Enjoy.







RR

Unemployment Up9.1%

Unexpected (again).



RR

Barry and Priorities

Unless you have been under a rock for the past few weeks, you know that there is a lot going on in the world. Unfortunatley for our President he is unaware. There are a few items that should have had the President's full attention, but he was more concerned about other things. Below is a list of what he should have been focused on:

His focus: NCAA brackets
Our focus: The people of Japan, the fear of a nuclear meltdown,the Libyan people

His focus: Women's History Month, fair pay, gender inequality
Our focus: Japanese earthquake

His focus:Scott Walker, the state of Wisconsin, teachers unions
Our focus:Getting a balanced budget

His focus: Headed to Brazil to talk about free trade
Our focus: WTF we are dropping bombs in Libya? Why? Are we going to war?

His focus:Another round of golf
Our focus: (hint 3 letter word) JOBS!

I could go on and on, but you get the point. We have a President who won a popularity contest, and he demonstrates this by not leading, but by hiding.

RR

The Heritage Foundation does a great job of explaining collective bargaining. My question has always been to my liberal friends: You guys say we have to have unions to keep an eye on the greedy corporations, but why do we have so many unions in the public sector?

RR

To Create or Save That is the Question

This is a post I made originally on TH. I have included an update.

Barry Obama and his gang of merry men (Reid, Pelosi, Durbin and Emanuel) have said that the stimulus plan would save or create jobs. I actually thought long and hard about this. Save or create, that is the question. Let us define these two words.

• Save- to rescue or deliver from danger or harm; to spend less money; to avoid unnecessary waste or expense

• Create - to produce or bring about by a course of action or behavior; to make or bring into existence something new

A few weeks ago Barry was present in Ohio for the swearing in of 25 police officers. Before the stimulus package was signed these officers were told that they would be laid off before they even joined the force. After the package was signed the city had the necessary funds to hire them. So Barry has saved 25 jobs thus far. Not bad for an $800 billion dollar investment. Let's not forget that the stimulus bill (I use the term loosely) has less than 10% that will actually stimulate anything. Unless you believe the economy can be stimulated by $650 million in coupons for set top boxes, $150 million for the Smithsonian and $1 billion for Amtrak who has not turned a profit in 40 years. So, Barry saved 25 jobs, but will someone from this administration tell me how they are going to create jobs.

I believe this quote found in the AP sums it up best.

"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong, "the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Montana Democrat Max Baucus, told Geithner last week.

"If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs, "Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."

Well if Baucus only knew that Barry's administration intends on making themselves look correct on everything they do, no matter how wrong they might be.

RR

Update: Today is July 14, 2009 and the unemployment rate stands at 9.5%. The Vice(gaffe)President says we (the administration) misread the economy. Then just days after that the President says "No, no, no, no, no," he told NBC's Chuck Todd. "Rather than say 'misread,' we had incomplete information." To ABC's Jake Tapper, he said, "There's nothing that we would have done differently."' Oh really? Well my bs sensors are going off. How about yours?