I think most of us can safely say that we saw this one coming. Somehow, as if by some strange miracle, the jobless rate in this country has just been made to drop to 5.9 percent. Now keep in mind that such a thing takes place at the very same time that a record 92,584,000 Americans, 16 and older, did not participate in the labor force in September, as the labor force participation rate matched a 36-year low of 62.7 percent.
Now also keep in mind that it has been 6 times in just the last twelve months that the participation rate has been as low as 62.8 percent; but September's 62.7 percent is actually the lowest since February of 1978. And we all remember who was president then, or at least we should. But just in case anyone has forgotten, that would be Jimmy Carter, whose been worse an even worse ex-president than he was a president.
In September, the civilian noninstitutional population in this country stood at 248,446,000. And of that 248,446,000, 155,862,000, or 62.7 percent, actually participated in the labor force, meaning they either had or job or had actively sought one in the last four weeks. Of the 155,862,000 who did participate in the labor force, 146,600,000 had a job and 9,262,000 did not have a job but actively sought one.
And it’s that 9,262,000 who are said to ‘officially’ comprise the unemployed. They equaled 5.9 percent of the labor force, or an unemployment rate of 5.9 percent, which was down slightly from the 6.1 percent unemployment rate in August. So you can pretty plainly see how it is that the numbers can be easily manipulated, and to the point where they have now essentially become pretty meaningless, yet are touted as being accurate.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), in an August 2014 update to its Budget and Economic Outlook, said the "temporary weakness" in the labor force participation rate "is expected to largely disappear by the end of 2017." And apparently in using what can only be their crystal ball, those at CBO projected that increased hiring would bring the unemployment rate to 5.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017.
The CBO makes the claim that greater hiring will encourage some people to reenter the labor force, slowing both the decline in the unemployment rate and the decline in labor force participation rate. The report said, "CBO anticipates that the labor force participation rate ... will decline slightly -- from 62.8 percent in the second quarter of 2014 to 62.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017."
And another rather interesting little tidbit of information that I think is worth mentioning is the fact that a record 55,553,000 women did not participate in the labor force in September. This means that 55,553,000 women in the United States did not have a job and did not actively seek one in the past four weeks. That means that number of women not in the labor force actually increased by 208,000 from the 55,345,000 in August.
The participation rate for women also dipped in September to 56.7 percent and it hasn’t been this low since back in September of 1988 when it was 56.6 percent. This means that only 56.7 percent of women participated in the labor force by either having a job during the month or actively seeking one. Those are pretty dismal numbers but neither Barry, nor those of his party seem very interested in doing anything about it.
The number of employed women decreased from 68,525,000 in August to 68,499,000 in September, or a decline of 26,000. However, the number of unemployed women also declined from 4,466,000 in August to 4,390,000 in September, which means there were 76,000 less unemployed women in September. And we’re told that the unemployment rate for women declined from 6.1 in August to 6.0 in September.
But does any of this really matter to women voters? And is this issue important enough, and will it persuade women to vote for other than Democrat candidates in the coming election? Well, I guess we’ll find out. Personally, I don’t trust many women to be able to figure out that the fact that if the country is allowed to continue down the path that Barry and the Democrat have placed it, things will not end well, for anybody. Including women!
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