Freedom Line Blog

Only in Washington, D.C. does the title of this post make any sense.  When gauging the state of jobs in our country, most look to the figure produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics referred to as “unemployment.”  That number rose last month from 9.7 to 9.9 percent.  Yet the economy added 290,000 non-farm jobs to payrolls.

Obama is upbeat about the numbers as 290,000 people who were not working last month are today.  The silver lining of the unemployment figure is the assumption that some people who gave up on job searching are back at it and thus are counted in the unemployment number again.

But there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about any assertions the jobs market is rebounding.  Since Obama came into office, Washington has exploded with public sector jobs.  The most illusory job creator is the Census Bureau, which balloons every ten years with temporary positions to complete the national survey.  Of the jobs created last month, the Census created 66,000, building up to the expected 1.2 million temporary jobs at the Bureau, which will not exist next year.

Furthermore, the underemployment rate, which also includes the unemployed who have quit job searching or have taken part-time work because they can’t find a full-time position, continues to climb.   Underemployment has risen from 16.5 percent to 17.1 percent since the beginning of the year.

And Obama has the gall to keep telling us the stimulus, the emergency $787 billion porker that if passed would prevent unemployment from rising above 8 percent, is working.