WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION HITS FRESH 38-YEAR LOW …
|| By FITSNEWS || America’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent in December (its lowest level since June 2008). Meanwhile another quarter million new jobs were created in December, according to the monthly job report released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
Good news, right? Sure … if you’re not paying attention.
Mainstream media outlets like The Wall Street Journal touted America’s “strongest year of job growth in 15 years” and a new “postrecession low” in unemployment as “evidence of momentum for the labor market.”
The only problem? The labor pool continued to shrink, wages also declined and the quality of jobs continued to diminish – a sad testament to the “recovery” created by the economic policies of presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Most important for those of you keeping score at home, America’s labor participation dropped in December to 62.7 percent – its lowest reading since December 1977. Translated into hard numbers? A total of 92.9 million working age Americans were not part of the labor force – a new record.
“Only 111,000 more Americans were employed in December than the month before, while 456,000 people abandoned the workforce entirely. That is how the unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent in spite of extremely disappointing job growth numbers,” said Rick Manning, vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government.
Meanwhile the nation’s civilian employment-to-population ratio remained stuck at 59.2 percent for the fourth consecutive month.
Here’s what that “jobs recovery” looks like courtesy of our friends at Zero Hedge …
(Click to enlarge)
(Pic: Via)
On the wage front, hourly earnings slid by 0.2 percent after a 0.4 percent gain in November – the steepest decline since the BLS began tracking the measure eight years ago.
Yeah … where’s the “consumer renaissance?” And bear in mind this income stagnation comes as Americans are having to pay more money than ever for health insurance.
“It was hardly a Merry Christmas for Americans who are trying to get ahead in spite of the headwinds created by the President’s regulatory policies,” Manning said.
Indeed …
While we continue to hope for the best, we see nothing in this labor report to indicate the American economy is roaring back to life … although we certainly welcome the debate.
DECEMBER 2014 EMPLOYMENT SITUATION (.pdf)
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69 comments
Holiday Seasonal jobs. Up next, seasonal lawn care jobs cause unemployment rates to drop.
A more balanced report from Calculated Risk: http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2015/01/december-employment-report-252000-jobs.html
Eleven consecutive months over 200 thousand. Employment is now up 2.952 million year-over-year.
For total employment, 2014 was the best year since 1999.
For private employment, 2014 was the best year since 1997.
The Labor Force Participation Rate declined in December to 62.7%. A large portion of the recent decline in the participation rate is due to demographics.
The Employment-Population ratio was unchanged at 59.2%.
The unemployment rate declined in December to 5,6%.
Road Apples, all of it. Those yahoos are counting the g’ment jobs twice: once for getting off the unemployment rolls and once for getting their butt into a g’ment seat.
Well, then, your brilliant rebuttal leaves me in tears!!!!
Not to mention the number of FT jobs being turned into PT jobs…
And they are taking Temp Jobs, and if a worker gets 4 Temp assignments in a month, which may be one-day each…they are counting that as FOUR new jobs created by Obama…
They know if they can just throw data out there, the F*#king Idiots will believe it…because they don’t care about reality…Just leftwing power and GREED…
They are beginning to fear losing the White House in 2016, and being over-run by the GOP, sent by the people to clean up Obama’s hideous mess.
Yes, leave it to ‘Zero Credibility Hedge’ and FITS to distort reality with cherry-picked numbers taken out of context.
Notice how the ‘chart’ above looks like employment dropped off a cliff in 2007, but the numbers on the graph axis are based only on a 9% percentage point range, not 0-100. This visually exaggerates the change.
The Baby Boom generation has reached retirement age (they were 61 or younger in 2007), and even in a huge expansion there is virtually nothing that will keep total employment from falling. Plus the generation coming into working age are postponing work for college in greater numbers than ever.
Yes, I noticed that shit too. Funny, most people don’t see it…
BS
It may only show 9% range, but the shaded area represents the recession. You can see there is very little improvement since.
This version by the BLS shows only a 6% range.
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS12300000
You a F*#King IDIOT….
Tourette’s has got Damned Tango by the toe.
Here I give you a break and engage w/ you – trying to make you a little relevant – and you F*#k it up w/ your simple – can’t keep up – mind…LMAO…
Don’t ever say I did not give you a chance…. (:
you’re killing your dogs, Damned Tango.
JC Penny’s just announced the closure of 40 more stores. … That’s about 2000 jobs gone from the private sector, today.
The single and only thing that will bring back consumerism is a whooping big personal income tax cut … Instead the BummerCare fines kick in this month … ‘tween $565 and $18,000 per year in fines for failure to comply. … How many private sector jobs will that kill?
For an economy creating about 13,000 jobs a day – I’ll see your 2,000 JC Penny jobs and raise you 11,000 other well paying jobs.
Obamacare staffer is not a good job. Don’t get too attached to them…we have to REPEAL Obama-care, or we collapse. There is no option.
“… creating about 13,000 jobs a day …”
?? That’s a pretty big number. Are you sure it is correct ??
13,000 new jobs per day = 4+ Million “new” jobs per year. I don’t remember seeing that in the news anywhere, certainly not in the business news.
JC Penney got screwed when they changed their pricing structure to get rid of all the marketing gimmicks that their competitors do. They’ve already abandoned that ship but they are still suffering from it.
Income tax cuts for the lower/middle class won’t happen. Don’t be so confident the GOP will give you that either. Last time I believe their proposal was for two brackets, 15% and 25%? Yeah… That mostly helps the rich, bro.
JC Penny screwed itself when it came out of the closet in support of dykes, lesbians, trans genders, cross dressers, and faggots. Sad you do not understand that. But then, that is your mindset from years of sniffing butt crack.
You should have signed up when you had the chance. Now pay up deadbeat. Why should we have to pay your hospital bills when you go broke after an illness?
I already have a perfectly good health care plan and I don’t need the extra costs associated with the BummerCare/G’ment Central Planning/”progressive” Elitists/Socialized insurance/ … screw-ups.
They can’t afford the ticket to china.
So Labor participation is down, and we’re moving along creating 250K to 300K jobs a month with 4% GDP growth. I call that a vacation for those not having to go back to work.
Is all of your money counterfeit, too?
$70,000 here! $5,000 more than last year.
Is that all you make?….Is that what welfare pays…???…LMAO…Now where is it you work???
At any rate…you seem to have some very dubious sounding claims…I can’t prove it, but my guess is you’re a LIAR regarding a lot of the claims you make…Your stories sound very contrived, as if someone is feeding them to you…
So, I’m willing to bet you made that much getting ads on that ghost town blog?? Lol…
Don’t be so hard on Grand Tango, he still believes the only real money is Confederate Dollars which lined the walls in the old brick building which provided excellent insulation.
Wooooo … There’ one born every minute!
It’s all about the numbers isn’t it…the President’s Nation is doing great and Governor’s South Carolina is a shit hole, figures don’t lie but liars figure.
I think the only thing saving this country is Republican governors, and overwhelmingly GOP legislatures.
We just need to get the courts (especially the SCOTUS) pro-American, so we can reject all of the imposing of very BAD policy onto free people in states that despise dictators, like Obama….
Let the liberal states HAVE Obama…they’ll be deserted – or like Indian reservations – in 10 years…while we prosper under a more conservative structure…
Grand Tango do you hear voices because you never mention anything resembling actual facts. If it’s so Bad in your mind you could check in a Hospital where they know how to semi-fix your problems. By the way you are going to need Obama Care to pay for it.
Why so angry all the time?
That sounded more like pity.
Snickering: I must respectively disagree because I don’t think modern medicine, as good as it is, could ever even “semi-fix” his problems. I’m afraid he is permanently delusional.
And about a dozen of them spend all that extra time here at FitsNews.
Uh, … would that be the Obamanation?
Thankfully Obama has turned around the Bush/Republican depression.
Thanks Obama!
Delusional kool aid crack pipe smoker.
And yet he’s still better off than the average person in SC.
The money supply is and has been expanding, hence the boom. With the suspension of QE, it will eventually contract(assuming they try to drain reserves and/or the reserves stay in the TBTF’s-but they could fire up the presses again too), then there will be a bust, worse than 08’…most likely it will be a stagflation type atmosphere because of the base that’s already been multiplied and the underlying structure can’t be supported in some areas, depending on where the reserves go.
The distortions from the money base expansion are immense, there’s no way to predict everything that is going to happen(let alone when)…but you simply can’t quadruple the base and expect prices never to rise….and once the bubbles pop people will learn that the economy can only handle so much pumping before investments aren’t sound and people are chasing yield.
Yet all these Liberals will swear the economy is GREAT and Obama is working a miracle…The miracle is fooling a bunch of Dumb@$$#$….but is it that hard when they are such willing idiots???….
There is NO recovery w/ no jobs and no wealth being created. Talk about the stock mkt. or gas prices all you want…and wait til Obama starts stripping what little you have to pay for Obamacare…
Many times we can absorb liberals…but unless we totally REVERSE all this hateful B@$t@*d has done, we’ll collapse….He’s a TOTAL F*#k up…like none before him, at a time we can least afford it….
Well the economy is not great, its just better than it was under Bush. Note the time period when the labor participation rate collapsed. It was during the Bush -GOP mini-Depression. It stopped falling in 2009 just after Bush left office and now its steadily improving.
Most all of the recession (that is still going on) is under Obama. Recessions are natural and part of our economic cycle…Good leaders will bring us out of a Recession. After Clinton sued Microsoft to end the 90s technology economic boom and put us in a recession in 2000, Bush brought us out of it. Bush also thwarted the horrible damage 9-11 did to the economy…and we prospered for his 2 terms…
Bush had REAL 4.5 percent unemployment, income growth and an abundance of opportunity….Gas was cheap and our PRIVATE-SECTOR economy was REALLY expanding…
One of the BIGGEST lies since Hitler is the media BASHING Bush’s economy so relentlessly until they convinced the easily-led the that it was bad…and now persuading the ignorant that Obama is anything other than a TOTAL and Complete disaster…..
If you got a job and brought in income besides the govt assistance checks you have a sunnier outlook. Don’t worry, our tax dollars will continue to support your pitiful self. You’re welcome.
Obama brought us cheaper gas than Bush.
Compare gas prices of the first 6 years of Bush to the first 6 years of Obama’s gas prices…
And you’ll find out that either you’re ignorant and uneducated…or a F*#king corrupt leftwing liar…that is so typical among you….
The difference is Bush’s watch saw gas go up to 4 bucks a gallon, while Obama’s watch saw gas go down to 2 bucks a gallon.
Now, don’t make me slap the shit out of you again. I hate it when you cry.
Gas prices began going up – and this info. can be researched – in late 2006 when Congress was taken over by the Democrats…
Remember their NO DRILLING policy. Speculators LOVE to hear the NO DRILL exaltation from Democrats – at least when it pertains to oil.
When ignorant politicians signal meddling by the government in the supply of a resource…the price Skyrockets…
Bush did release some reserves in the summer of 08, and gas prices dropped to as low as $1.35 a gallon…before Obama F*#ked that up…and we have been paying through the nose since…
You represent yourself as a pretty ignorant A$$-hole…You need to get more educated before running your mouth…
So you admit Bush couldn’t do anything without emptying our reserves.
Our reserves are more abundant after he “emptied” them than they ever have been. They are easily replenished.
Oil is abundant, plentiful and should be cheap…if we can get you IGNORANT F*#k Democrats out of the way and use the oil like God intended…and fix this DISASTER of an Obama-conomy….
Oh, my…”like God intended.” Boy, you crack us up…
Why does what I Believe have ANY affect on you???…Are you a NAZI or a Communist?…
I don’t care if you worship the Rain Forest or consult your Voodoo Shaman…though it does get old when you come demanding I clean up the mess you make of your lives with things like AIDS or starvation…after your false deities fail you…
melt down!
I just can’t stop slapping the shit out of you.
The fact that you’re ignorant (as in bliss) does help you, I’m sure…LMAO…
I must have hit a nerve for you to nervously post “LMAO”
I just love it when you piss yourself in public like that.
Yes , we know that in your bubble, facts = liberal bias (or propaganda/lies) and that all who disagree with you are commies.
GrandTango, just because you refuse to get a job, doesn’t mean the rest of the country is doing bad.
Wall Street Journal: Employers do the most hiring since 1999
If there is anybody who would know about not participating in the labor force, it would be most FitsNews commenters.
What’s your job negro? Collecting welfare checks?
Like this one^^^
Beautiful chart. Note that the Dims took over congress in 2007. My president did a great job of running the country till the Dims took over. Enough said. Numbers don’t lie.
Talking jobs, Union Vote at Boeing coming to you in March.
Ah, but you seem to ignore a certain dynamic…. business profits continued to climb (and management bonuses increased), while wages were stagnant or reduced. Basically, greed is killing the economy. Some get even richer by manipulating the laws and public opinion (think about the average poor SC resident’s opinion of unions) while the majority struggle to keep head above water. If business owners possessed enough integrity to treat employees fairly, EVERYONE would be more successful. Unfortunately, businesses no longer take the long view, but rather focus on making decisions which result in short-term profit. The cost? long-term stability and survivability.
Hopefully the machinist in that picture is a contractor or doing piece work. = no w2 with holding … ;-}
That chart? Oh Bummer … or as they say in France, Oh Bummaire’