I think it more than fair to say that if the recent bout of unemployment numbers prove anything, it’s that, economically speaking, the second term of Barry "Almighty" is really nothing more than the third term of Jimmy "The Bonehead" Carter. According to these numbers, U.S. employers hired the fewest number of workers in nearly three years in December, but of course one of the excuses for the low number of hires was that which the administration is trying hard to blame on global warming, that being of course, the recent, and very unusual, cold weather that was experienced by nearly the entire country.
Nonfarm payrolls rose only 74,000 in December, the smallest increase since January 2011 and well short of the 200,000 jobs or so that most economists had, for some reason, come to expect. Although, I fail to understand just how any self-respecting economist could really expect to occur anything other than what did. But even though with just a miniscule number of new jobs, somehow we’re still all supposed to believe that the unemployment rate actually went down. Because what we’re being told is that the unemployment rate fell 0.3 percentage point to 6.7 percent, which, as it just so happens, is the lowest level since October 2008. Coincidence?
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that still more people simply left the labor force. And then, something described as making the news not quite so bad was the fact that, somehow, the government's survey of employers found 38,000 more jobs were added in November than previously reported. Imagine that, now where do you suppose those little buggers were hiding? In corner cubicle, in government office somewhere? I’d be curious to know out of all the jobs that have been supposedly created over the course Barry’s presidency, how many were real, full-time private-sector jobs. I’d be willing to bet, not all many.
Construction employment fell last month for the first time since May and leisure and hospitality payrolls rose only marginally, providing hints that extremely cold weather in some parts of the country had held back hiring. In addition, transportation payrolls recorded their first decline in five months, and the average workweek for all workers slipped by a tenth of an hour to 34.4 hours. The smaller survey of households from which the jobless rate is derived showed 273,000 people stayed at home because of the bad weather, the most since 1977 and well above the 100,000 average for the month of December.
And something else reminiscent of the Carter years is the fact that the labor force participation rate, or the proportion of working-age Americans who have a job or are looking for one, fell 0.2 percentage point to 62.8 percent, returning to the more than 35-year low hit in October. The decline accounted for two-thirds of the drop in the jobless rate. The report offered a cautionary note after a string of data that tried to suggest that the economy ended 2013 on strong footing and was positioned to strengthen further this year. Let’s face it, every policy that has been put in place by Barry has only served to further weaken the economy.
But I guess economists must be an optimistic bunch, because we’re that told that "other data" on Friday showed wholesale inventories rose more than expected in November, that apparently lead some economists to upgrade their forecasts for fourth-quarter growth. Well, what do you know about that? And GDP growth this year is "expected" to top 3 percent, a sharp acceleration from the 1.7 percent forecast for 2013. Now I don’t know about you but I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard how it was that when something occurred, related to the economy, it was totally unexpected. Just who are these supposed economists?
In answering my previous question, oddly enough we’re being told that private sector accounted for all the gains in employment last month, with government payrolls falling 13,000 after rising 15,000 in November. But whether or not they were actual full-time jobs, that we still don’t know. Manufacturing employment supposedly rose 9,000. And while that represented a fifth straight month of gains, it marked a slowdown from November's hefty 31,000 count. The number of construction jobs fell 16,000, snapping six consecutive monthly increases. Utilities jobs fell by the most in a year. Maybe Barry’s EPA had something to do with that?
And try as they might, not all the job losses could be blamed on the weather. The information sector shed 12,000 positions and healthcare employment fell for only the second time since 1990. Employment in the retail sector accelerated after slowing in November. There were also payroll gains in professional and business services. Average hourly earnings rose two cents. Over the past 12 months, hourly earnings have risen only 1.8 percent, a sign the tepid wage gains that have characterized the U.S. economic recovery continue. Unless, of course, you’re one of those lucky ones who get a job working for the government.
Look, anyone who believes anything that we’re now being told by this group headed up by Barry, especially about our struggling economy, is either naïve or a fool. As I stated earlier, every single policy and/or regulation that has been put in place by Barry has been done so with one specific purpose in mind. And that purpose is to destroy our economy so that he can then point to how it is that free-market capitalism is a failure and that the time has now come to try something different. And, oh by the way, Barry has just what the doctor ordered and that is guaranteed to fix what ails us.
We’ve already seen far too many examples of what it would be that Barry has in mind here, and the resulting picture is not a pretty one. And, realistically speaking, it’s nothing that hasn't already been tried and then shown to be an abject failure. Despite his childish arguments about fairness and income inequality there is no other economic system that provides so much to so many, and not only when measuring financial rewards. Opportunities abound for us all, all we need is the will and the motivation to take the plunge, to ‘DO’. It is the one economic system where each and every one of us has an opportunity to become a success.
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