RECORD 93.2 MILLION WORKING AGE AMERICANS OUT OF LABOR FORCE …
|| By FITSNEWS || Remember that “jobs recovery?” The one in which low-paying, part-time positions (accompanied by nonexistent wage growth) were supposedly fueling a consistent employment expansion? Even as record numbers of working age Americans remained out of the labor force?
Yeah … well guess what: Even that weak-ass “recovery” now appears to be on the ropes.
The federal government released its March 2015 employment situation report this week and the numbers were – terrible. According to the government data (which is always to be taken with an ocean of salt), only 126,000 new positions were created last month.
Oddly enough, analysts blamed a drop-off in energy sector jobs for the bad news … even though prior energy sector job losses have been mysteriously absent from the government data. Specifically, the government claimed there were only 3,000 energy sector job losses during the first two months of the year – even though private sector data revealed a whopping 40,000 lost jobs.
Whatever you make of the government data, its growth estimates are the lowest on record since December 2013, as you can see in this chart from our friends at Zero Hedge …
(Click to enlarge)
(Chart: Zero Hedge)
Here’s the real problem, though. A whopping 277,000 working age Americans left the labor force last month – bringing the total to a record 93.2 million (which is up 2.1 million over the past year). That meant America’s labor participation rate fell from 62.8 to 62.7 percent – matching levels not seen in nearly forty years.
Again, courtesy of our friends at Zero Hedge, here’s what that looks like …
(Click to enlarge)
(Chart: Zero Hedge)
Last week this website addressed lackluster economic growth projections as further reason to doubt the “rainbows and unicorns” crowd – which is our term for those on Wall Street, in Washington, D.C. and the legacy media who breathlessly promote the “happy days are here again” economic narrative.
We’ve never bought into that fiction … especially the myth that lower gas prices were going to fuel some consumer renaissance.
They might have … had everybody not had those gas savings sucked up by Obamacare.
60 comments
90% of any job is just showing up.
What ever happened to that “work-fare” dealio?
Just don’t plant them in CA, no water to water the seedlings.
There are long discourses as to why trees should be planted in a drought. The upshot amongst scientists, mostly physicists, is that trees are intimately connected with rainfall. The more trees there are, the more rain is likely. … But that will take some research on the readers’ part to prove or disprove. IMO the theories about “more trees = more rain” are correct. … They just need a good start …
An uneducated farmer has reclaimed desert in the southern Sahara of Africa by planting trees and other vegetation. He did it during the dry season too.
The State of Taxifornia are the bad guy here.
1) During the last decade or so, CalTrans has cut down more than 20,000 redwood trees in the north end of the state without any replanting program(s). This is on top of the ongoing clearcutting allowed by the feds on BLM land.
2) The Air Force (ca. reservists, mostly), have been flying air tanker loads of chemicals and dumping them over the Pacific off of the Taxifornia coast. This is a weather “geo-engineering” program that obviously is not working at all right and almost certainly has contributed to the western drought. (“Never in history has raising taxes changed the weather.” … for the better.)
Thumper: If you have any links to that tree hugging outfit in Africa, I would appreciate it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/world/africa/11iht-niger.4549045.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
It might also be noted that the average annual rainfall in Western Kansas is also on the increase … primarily because of irrigation but also because there are more trees there now than at any time in the last ten thousand years.
Boomers and the government have helped suck the marrow from the bones of the economy.
Normally I’d wish them a happy digestif via a brain cocktail, but the voting masses have no brains so it looks like they’ll just have to be content in slurping up the cadaver remains through a straw.
At least Washington DC is experiencing record job creation. I wonder why.
Will, you’re a hypocrite. In the last 3 quarters, when the national labor participation rate declined one tenth of a percent 0.1%, South Carolina’s has improved 1.0%. You reported SC’s rate when it was falling, but haven’t reported it’s dramatic 1/2% rise the last two months.
South Carolina has had two months of the largest job growth ever. January and February show 10,610 and 10,432 new jobs. Those figures are 60% higher than any other month since records began in 1976.
If you were to plot South Carolina’s recent job growth it would look like the discredited climate change hockey stick graph; slow gradual rise then sudden sharp steep rise. Are you afraid Haley’s crony capitalism will get the credit?
“Are you afraid Haley’s “so called crony capitalism” will get the credit?”
Regardless of whether crony capitalism warrants someone getting “credit,” it is still purely wrong and unfair to allow the government to pick winners and losers.
The vicious cycle will never end if we allow politicians to make favorable decisions to one entity over another and then, subsequently, said entity continues to load politicians up with campaign contributions for future elections. (Especially since Citizens United v. FEC).
You make a legitimate argument, but does that mean Fits should hide from the facts. Fits made your same argument and defended it using declining labor participation rates. Let’s see his defense now that they are rising.
That’s how you can distinguish my comment from Folks’. I’m not citing data, nor am I pushing a stance on job growth.
Rather, I’m saying–flat out–the government has no business picking winners and losers. It is undeniable that this is what it is doing when it hands down generous contributions to a corporation. I see no need to link “job growth” to my position. Its about the process and the principle, not just the end result.
If you want my opinion on job reports, I prefer to look at numerous reports and draw a conclusion from a totality of the circumstances. If you send me a link to one report, the first question I will always ask is, “who paid for the report?” It’s very telling to see who paid to conduct the poll or furnish said report.
It’s foolish to think otherwise. Similarly, its just as absurd to sit and listen to the “MSNBC crowd” bad-mouth the “Fox News crowd” and vice versa. It’s just plain silliness. The media is a business (FITS included) and mostly concerned with generating advertisement dollars. Purely objective journalism is extinct, as is completely neutral polling data or an analyst’s report.
I use reports that are issued on a regular bases, but prefer tables and charts that show differences and a time sequence. I also compare SC rates to national and other states. If one month is exaggerated it only makes the next month look worse. Here are some that I use for each month for South Carolina.
South Carolina a glance. It has the las six months data.Each dinosaur icon opens a time series chart and table. You can also change the time span on the dinosaur linked tables and charts. You can export them to Excel in order to calculate monthly differences. http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.SC.htm
This link gives me the data for all the states at one time, but it is more difficult to work with. I use search to find latest month and year. It has the labor participation rates and the employment ratios, but they can be computed for SC from the link above.
http://www.bls.gov/lau/ststdsadata.txt
FITS goal is NOT honestly reporting the TRUTH…That’s why he’s considered a HACK…And that may be a generous description…since he may not even meet the qualifications to be a hack…
You’re so fucked up in the head, I think I am going to see about a court Order to shut you down – and up.
Find the nearest Obama judge…and I’m sure you and FITS will get exactly what you want…
NAZIs stick together…LMAO…
So, Fits is not a hack? What is he then? He wouldn’t have printed this article if it was a good report. He only reports the bad. Then only in a skewed way. How do you explain his multiple articles on SC’s declining labor participation rates, but no reports on its rise.
Fuck you and your mom.
Later. First, answer my statements above. Is Will a hypocrite?
Why so angry?
I suppose that I place a high value on fairness. Fits has reported everything bad about South Carolina but refuses to report good news. But I’m laughing. I’m not angry.
I am laughing too … at that little peepee in your hand.
Can’t take it can you, W I L L ?
I don’t think even a pussy cat would be satisfied with that little thing you have.
Only WILL would be so upset as you.
I think that all the devils have at once entered into you.You are worse than all the devils. What you have done, no devil has ever done. Your end is near, you son of perdition and Antichrist!
GT was responding to my post. What did I or GT say that isn’t true?
As it closes in around you…and even FITS is no longer shilling for Obama – and all of your Stupid Bull-S#!t that you’ve gotten away with – you’re coming apart…
You sound like a complete delusional nutjob…
Are you ignorant of what it means to be ignorant?
Hold on, I’ll go find you a tampon.
I believe Will is trolling his own website. He is the only one who would get so angry.
I thought the same thing.
Or it may be K (w/ a ‘K’ like Marx) who FITS has brought in to try to save his site from being the staging area most populated delusional leftists ….
I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit out a smarter statement than that.
PROVE IT!
If you’re gonna be a smartass, first you have to be smart. Otherwise you’re just an ass
Make your argument. Not just insults. It doesn’t take intelligence to make insults.
You know, the best part of you ended up as a brown stain on your mother’s mattress. Do you even know who your father is????
Are you capable of making an intelligent remark. I’m still waiting, W I L L !
Poor, poor, Bible. He can’t win on any level. Sad, very sad.
I haven’t heard you challenge anything I’ve said. Even your identity. I edited my original posts to worn others that W I L L is trolling his own website.
Bible Thumper Bibles Psychosis Is Noted • 3 hours ago
I haven’t heard you challenge anything I’ve said. Even your identity. I edited my original posts to worn others that W I L L is trolling his own website
<<<< "Worn Others"???? HAHAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!!
Hahaha!!!
Very rarely does anyone get so many negative replies, yet none have a disqus logon. Very odd. Seems pretty obvious that they are coming from Will. You do a article about South Carolina’s last two monthly jobs reports and I’ll apologize for calling you a hypocrite. OK Will?
And FITS is the only Stupid Some Beech, besides Rocky and a couple other FITS myth-based minions, who is SURPRISED…
LMAO…How long have I been telling you this????
Well this doesn’t really impact you. You’re already unemployed living off the government anyway. No worries – we’ll keep giving you your free stuff.
So you’re FINALLY admitting you’ve been LYING about ALL those jobs…Thank you…
You lust for the creamy taste of Obama’s liquid babies, don’t you.
Oh yeah baby – that’s what I’m talking about. The Smirks!!!!
Piss on you, faggot.
Best and Brightest…LMAO…
You do nothing with all your profusion of words but fight a fire with dry straw
Well said. Well said.
For a minute there I thought you were complaining about your sore vagina.
Thousands more illegals from Mexico and Central America have taken up residency in South Carolina. Now isn’t that just W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L???
You guys don’t mind a few more loyal democrats, right?
Bible Thumper and GrandTango enjoy going out together and holding hands.
When the facts are indisputable,… insults.
Wow…look at these DRUDGE Headlines:
RECORD 93,175,000 AMERICANS NOT WORKING…
Record 12,202,000 Blacks Not In Labor Force…
Record 56,131,000 Women…
January, February jobs numbers revised down dramatically…
Fed Cuts Growth Forecast to ZERO…
I’d don’t pretend to be a prophet…but I sho’ do look like one…don’t I? LMAO…
You see the red line in the second chart that Fits and Zerohedge make a big deal out of. Well, do you notice that the vertical axis starts at 62.5% and ends at 68.5%. No big deal but the charts design does visually exaggerate the changes in the labor participation rate. That, however. Is not my biggest issue with the chart. If you look carefully you will see that it is the shape of the post WW II “Baby Boom”. See link. If you shift the linked chart over 45 years (1955 on the linked chart to 2000 on the Zerohedge chart) the prime employment age appears to match pretty good. That indicates that the chart has little to do with the economy and more to do with demographics.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/US_Birth_Rates.svg
Next, on the last chart the black line represents the number of adults not in the labor force. It seems to rise almost continuously from about 62,500 in 1990 to 93,000 in 2015 based on the left axis measured in thousands. That line almost totally represents population growth. If you would have plotted it as a percentage of the population instead of gross numbers it would look like the labor participation chart from 1990 on, only flipped upside-down. After all the percentage of adults out of the labor force would equal 100% minus the percentage in the labor force. Again Zerohedge’s chart represents a demographic trend not an economic one.
Finally, I don’t believe in accidents when it comes media. Zerohedge has a history of presenting data in a strange, nonstandard way. If you look at the charts there seems to be an agenda to place blame on both parties or to show that it doesn’t matter which party is in charge. It is not always the case but there is a trend. While I do believe both parties are to blame, I also believe there were also good economic policies under both Democrats and Republicans. There is one group who have a motive to have you believe that the two parties have always failed. Libertarians.
But ‘working age’ is factored in when they talk about labor force participation, at least the BLS. My understanding of it is counting people between the ages of 16 and 64 when workforce participation is counted. So that would factor out retirees. Although many do retire before the age of 64, they aren’t counting 78 year olds.
The work/labor force participation rate includes all old people not in prison or nursing home. It is the labor force of those working divided by the civilian noninstitutional population. There is a 25 — 54 labor participation rate and it is down but not as dramatically.
http://www.bls.gov/dolfaq/bls_ques23.htm