Ken Berwitz
Having written many blogs on this subject, with the information coming from easily available sources, I remain amazed – and disgusted – by how many media venues continue to promote the fantasy that the Obama administration has a positive record on job growth.
Let me stop right here and offer excerpts from two article – one, from Reuters, was written in 2013 and published in the decidedly leftward Huffington Post. The other was written last year, and published in the decidedly Obama-friendly Washington Post.
First the Reuters excerpt:
U.S. businesses are hiring at a robust rate. The only problem is that three out of four of the nearly 1 million hires this year are part-time and many of the jobs are low-paid.
Faltering economic growth at home and abroad and concern that President Barack Obama\’s signature health care law will drive up business costs are behind the wariness about taking on full-time staff, executives at staffing and payroll firms say.
Executives at several staffing firms told Reuters that the law, which requires employers with 50 or more full-time workers to provide healthcare coverage or incur penalties, was a frequently cited factor in requests for part-time workers. A decision to delay the mandate until 2015 has not made much of a difference in hiring decisions, they added.
Now the Washington Post excerpt:
New government data released Thursday showed the economy added 288,000 jobs in June – the fifth straight month gains have topped the critical benchmark of 200,000. The unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent, down more than a percentage point over the past year.
But there\’s a gnawing fear among some economists that the improving data provides false comfort. The number of people in part-time jobs jumped by more than 1 million in June to 27 million, according to the government\’s data, making it one of the corners of the labor market that has been slowest to heal. That has led to worries that the workforce may be becoming permanently polarized, with part-timers stuck on one side and full-time workers on the other.
For years, we have been regaled with media lore about how wonderful the Obama recovery is – how many new jobs have been created and how low the unemployment rate has become (currently 5.3%).
The truth, however, is that :
-most of the jobs created are part-time rather than full-time, which means that millions of people are now underemployed, and
-the unemployment rate is down because the job participation rate – i.e. the percent of people who are even looking for work – has dropped to a 38 year low, which means that the reason we are at 5.3% is because of how many people just plain gave up and dropped out of the job market.
Does that look like good jobs news to you? If so, we have very different ideas of what good jobs news is…
…which leads to the issue of why, if this information is out there and so readily available, so many media venues are pretending it doesn\’t exist?
Media bias, anyone?
Oh, one other thing: as noted in an earlier blog, the current 5.3% unemployment rate – the one we are supposed to be jumping for joy over – was the AVERAGE unemployment rate during George Bush\’s 8 years as President.
Remember Bush? He is the guy we\’re supposed to think of as an economic disaster compared to Barack Obama? But the single lowest unemployment rate for Barack Obama in 6 1/2 years, was the average unemployment rate for George Bush.
And if that doesn\’t bring it home clearly enough, think about this:
-The average unemployment rate throughout Barack Obama\’s presidency is 7.9%. The unemployment rate in January, 2009, the month Barack Obama assumed the Presidency after running a campaign ridiculing Bush\’s economic performance, was 7.8%…the highest it had been in Bush\’s entire presidency.
-And Bush\’s 7.8% was with a labor participation rate of 65.7%. Under Obama it has dropped to an ugly 62.6%. If you add in the 3% of workers who have dropped out of the job market under Obama, thus artificially lowering the unemployment rate, Obama\’s 5.3% soars far higher.
Now, tell me again what an economic whiz Barack Obama has been. I can use the belly laugh.
