Economy

More on this bogus jobs report.

"According to the BLS, “In September, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force.” These individuals “wanted and were available for work,” but “they were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.”
In other words, 2.5 million unemployed Americans were not counted as unemployed."

But it gets worse.

"A truer picture of the dire employment situation is provided by the 600,000 rise over the previous month in involuntary part-time workers. According to the BLS, “These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.”"

And worse.

"Turning to the 114,000 new jobs, once again the jobs are concentrated in lowly paid domestic service jobs that cannot be offshored. Manufacturing jobs declined by 16,000."

And worse.

"As has been the case for a decade, two categories – health care and social assistance (primarily ambulatory health care services) and waitresses and bartenders account for 53% of the new jobs. The BLS never ceases to find ever growing employment of people in restaurants and bars despite the rising dependence of the US population on food stamps."

And worse.

"While employment falters, the consumer price index (CPI-U) in August increased 0.6 percent, the largest since June 2009."

Thanks, Bernanke. And this is supposed to be good news. Obama and his cronies claim it's good news.

Another author is skeptical of the numbers right before the election.

"Economist John Williams of ShadowStats.com in his most recent October 5, 2012 commentary #473 surmises how the BLS produced "deliberately-inconsistent numbers" regarding new jobs.
Williams has consistently reported the Federal Government fudges numbers that measure the economy and jobs. While the BLS says the unemployment number is 7.8% for Sept. ’12, ShadowStats says it is really 22.8%."

Williams goes on to expose the BLS.

"The August-to-September change in the headline unemployment rate almost certainly was not a 0.3% decline.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) knows the reported change in unemployment was wrong – other than by extreme coincidence – and it knows what consistent reporting actually showed.  Only politics prevents the BLS from releasing the correct number, whether the unemployment rate actually declined, held even, or rose as predicted by consensus forecasters.  The lack of transparency here in the data preparation allows for direct political manipulation.
The problem is that the BLS knowingly has been preparing the seasonally-adjusted headline unemployment numbers on an inconsistent and non-comparable basis for some time.  The September number was prepared using a different set of seasonal factors than was used in coming up with the August number.  The reporting difference can be large, when proper consistent month-to-month changes are used.
The BLS has the correct number and could publish it…. Now would be a particularly good time for the BLS to come clean on its unemployment estimates, even if the numbers "confuse" data users."

Wow. I wonder if Williams will have a sudden, unexpected fatal heart attack after that.