Friday, November 2, 2012

October Employment Numbers -- Still Not Good News

Despite rumors of a delay due to Hurricane Sandy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the October report on-time.

The report predicts that there will be little change to employment due to the storm.

The report also indicates a rise in unemployment to 7.9%, up .1% from the initial September numbers.

The report also revises the September and August numbers, making the employment situations worse than initially reported for those months. This should come as no surprise, as it has been the trend over the past 44 months under this, our 44th president.

The U6 numbers are also relatively unchanged, despite a small increase in full-time employment.

The number of applications for food subsidies increased more than new hires for the 44th month in a row.

SSDI numbers were not available at the time of publication. However, the trend of new people claiming anxiety or depression for Social Security Disability has been staggering over the past few years. That means more and more people leaving the workforce, but taking disability handouts because they have mental anguish over the inability to find employment, after 99 weeks of receiving unemployment insurance payments.

The Workforce Participation Rate reportedly increased by a very small, almost negligible, amount. A number of students preparing for seasonal work during their break between semesters as well as those preparing to graduate at the end of the fall term could account for that slight shift in job seekers.

Overall, this is not good news. It is bad news in the effect that it demonstrates a largely stagnated economy. Jimmy Carter would have called this "malaise" during his term. Ronald Reagan demonstrated that it was poor Keynesian economic policies that caused the "malaise". Obama would have you believe that it was the supply-side and more laissez-faire policies of Reagan, Newt and the congress who twisted Clinton's arms, the tax cuts to increase revenue under JFK, and similar policies that utilize the Laffer Curve that lead to this current economic condition.

However, unemployment is lower in "right to work" states, especially those with less-progressive, lower, or non-existent state income taxes. Ironically, those states doing the best have also proposed legislation or constitutional amendments to nullify the PPACA.

Full article originally published at P-G Matuszak's Mental Aikido:

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