From 2006 through 2011, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed a decrease in the U.S. employment-to-population rate. In 2006 the rate was 63.1, while in 2011 it was 58.4. The increase in this number during Obama’s first term is over three times greater than it was during the entirety of the 1980s. The mainstream media reported that in January the U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs, but failed to report that non-seasonally adjusted numbers counting people not in the labor force showed a 1,446,000 decrease in the number of employed Americans from December to January. From 2007 to 2013, the number of employed Americans decreased from over 146 million to 141.6 million.
Over the 2006 to 2011 period, the number of Americans counted as not in the labor force increased from 77,387,000 to 86,001,000, an increase of over 8 million compared to the increase of only 2,518,000 in the 1980s. If the labor force participation rate were the same as when Obama was elected the first time, it would put employment well above 10 percent instead of 7.9.
In addition, 41 percent of all American workers make $20,000 a year or less. The Census Bureau says over 146 million Americans are either poor or low income. On top of that, during Obama’s first term, an average of about 11,000 Americans a day went on food stamps. Small businesses are concerned with healthcare costs and are unable to hire, and for each of the last four presidential administrations, the rate of new start-up jobs has decreased. But the mainstream media continues to report that employment is improving.
Title: The Media is Lying to You About Unemployment in America
Author: Michael Snyder
Source: Information Clearing House, February 3, 2013
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33822.htm
Noah Tenney, Sonoma State University
Steven Cuellar, Faculty Evaluator, Sonoma State