Unemployment is down to 5.3%. This is being hailed by Obama & Co. as some kind of triumph.
Is it?
In 2009. when newly elected President Barack Obama and his 60% Democrat majorities in both houses of congress, passed the so-called “Stimulus Package”, his administration issued a graph showing that, without this package, unemployment, which then was about 8%, would jump to 8.5% – 9%, over the next year…but, with it, unemployment would cap where it was, and drop from there.
Well, Mr. Obama got the “stimulus package. And, over the following year, unemployment with that package jumped to 10%. It then sat at 9% or more for almost 2 years, and then 8% or more for the next year. Since then, it has trickled down to its the current 5.3% level (which, interestingly enough, is the average* of the entire Bush administration – a little something Obama & Co. somehow never mention.)
Doubt me? Here are the actual data (President Obama took office at the beginning of 2009):
Year
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
2005
5.3
5.4
5.2
5.2
5.1
5.0
5.0
4.9
5.0
5.0
5.0
4.9
2006
4.7
4.8
4.7
4.7
4.6
4.6
4.7
4.7
4.5
4.4
4.5
4.4
2007
4.6
4.5
4.4
4.5
4.4
4.6
4.7
4.6
4.7
4.7
4.7
5.0
2008
5.0
4.9
5.1
5.0
5.4
5.6
5.8
6.1
6.1
6.5
6.8
7.3
2009
7.8
8.3
8.7
9.0
9.4
9.5
9.5
9.6
9.8
10.0
9.9
9.9
2010
9.8
9.8
9.9
9.9
9.6
9.4
9.4
9.5
9.5
9.4
9.8
9.3
2011
9.2
9.0
9.0
9.1
9.0
9.1
9.0
9.0
9.0
8.8
8.6
8.5
2012
8.3
8.3
8.2
8.2
8.2
8.2
8.2
8.0
7.8
7.8
7.7
7.9
2013
8.0
7.7
7.5
7.6
7.5
7.5
7.3
7.2
7.2
7.2
7.0
6.7
2014
6.6
6.7
6.6
6.2
6.3
6.1
6.2
6.1
5.9
5.7
5.8
5.6
2015
5.7
5.5
5.5
5.4
5.5
5.3
-the latest data show a record 93,626,000 Americans 16 or older out of the labor force,-the labor participation rate has dropped to an ugly 62.6% – the lowest since 1977 (people out of the labor force because they have given up looking for jobs do not count in the unemployment rate…they actually lower it),-and a majority of jobs created since this administration took office have been part time rather than full time – which means that even the jobs which are being created are sub-par.
