Unemployment rate drops to 8.1% and it’s not a good thing

Unemployment numbers were released today, revealing a drop from 8.3% to 8.1%. But, is that really accurate? Or have so many people given up on finding a job that the participation rate has skewed the report? This morning on radio, Glenn discussed the jobs report and gave you the information behind the report that this administration doesn’t want you to know.

“The number of unemployed is actually up,” Glenn told listeners this morning.

Why?

Glenn explained that the participation rate is down, which creates the illusion that more people have found work than really have. In other words, if people hadn’t given up on looking for work and turned to government assistance, the unemployment rate would reveal 11.2% unemployment – but to be included in the unemployment numbers, you have to actively be seeking work.

“Food stamps have literally gone through the roof,” Glenn reminded listeners. “If the same number of people were looking for work as they were under George W. Bush, if they hadn’t dropped out and just gone on to food stamps, that number now would be at 11.2%.”

And even that number is likely to be skewed. After Jimmy Carter, the way the unemployment numbers were calculated changed. The real number could be 16% or even higher.

“They’re going to tout this as a good thing,” Glenn said.

But if that were true, Ben Bernanke and the Fed wouldn’t be discussing printing more money right now.

James Pethokoukis at the American Enterprise Institute explained in a recent blog:

“This was not the employment report either American workers of the Obama campaign were hoping for. It shows the U.S. labor market remains in a deep depression, generating few jobs and little if no income growth.”

A few of the unsettling details that AEI shares are that non-farm payrolls increased by 96,000 in August (well below expectations), average job growth per month is down from last year, and, like Glenn noted, the participation rate is plummeting.

In fact, according to Reuters, the participation is at its lowest level since September 1981.


“If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%. If the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate would be 8.4%.”

 

Get more details HERE.

Recently on The Glenn Beck Program, Stu explained what President Obama said unemployment numbers would under his policies…and what they really are – WATCH:

In the president’s speech last night at the DNC, he didn’t seem to have a change of plans or policies for his second term, so it’s likely another four years of this administration would mean another four years of, at best, a stagnate economy.

SHARE this information with your friends, your neighbors and your family, because like Stu has been saying all summer: given everything we now know, if we elect this president for a second term, we deserve everything we get.

  • http://www.artinphoenix.com/gallery/grimm snowleopard (cat folk gallery)

    The administration is growing more and more desperate with each passing day; they are out of ideas, and even QE 3 will do no good in the end for them. It is now to the point they are preparing for their loss, and to commit a scorched earth action with the national economy.

    Remember that the leadership of the Democrats stated they will see the economy collaspe before handing power over to the Republicans; and this is what I have warned of for some time. We are seeing the preparations for just that, so watch for them to make the ultimatum just before the elections – us or the destruction of the nation.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHETWQlwxfg&feature=share&list=PL5FABE780A13D231D Rahm Kota

    I just love how Obama worshipers take the unemployment going down as a good sign but ignore poor people they trip over to get to their hope and change fantasy mirror fun house. If they paid attention to what was going on around them. When you point this out to them they call us homophobe sexist and racist for pointing it out to them. Why do they hate the poor? Why do they hate the truth? I feel they hate these things because they do not care because they are spoon feed propaganda by the progs and will believe them over their own eyes and ears. I was one of these fools marching to the prog machine. Then I realized that what the DNC said and what actually happen on earth are two different things.

  • http://twitter.com/AliceBartell Alice Bartell

    If the labor force participation rate was the same as when Obama took office in January 2009, the unemployment rate would be 11.2%. If the participation rate had just stayed the same as last month, the unemployment rate would be 8.4%. http://knightDeal.blogspot.com

  • Anonymous

    What about the other people who are out of work that do not show up on the radar for statistics? These people may out number the 8.1% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Anonymous

    That’s how statistics work. One can skew stats any way they want to their own advantage. Before November 6, look for official unemployment stats to be around 5.6%. Look for Obama to use these figures to dispell any rumors to the contrary from republicans or anybody else. And the media will have them all over the map in support of their chosen one.

  • Sandie

    That’s right – Utopia is a fantasy.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHETWQlwxfg&feature=share&list=PL5FABE780A13D231D Rahm Kota

    Utopia is not only a fantasy but it is impossible for humans to make a government like that sure the founders got real close but yet it still is not perfect. Why because humans are not perfect to begin with and it is scary that the left think they can play god to get this utopia though total control of everyone’s lives what good is utopia if you have no freedom to enjoy it.

  • Anonymous

    You are right, how come when obama was voted in there was no mention of racism,but now that we want him out everybody that does is a racist?

  • Anonymous

    Must say, Stu’s line says it all: given everything we now know, if we elect this president for a second term, we deserve everything we get. Looks like we, also, got that the first time around. Except, we really did NOT KNOW much about the man, did we?
    Thanks LSM for the good job of vetting! (Great results, that stimulus.)

  • Anonymous

    yourpaled, you have that right! There may be a lot of ”fast shuffling” with facts in order to appeal for votes. Unfortunately, for some, it might work.

  • http://www.facebook.com/glennwood.jackson Glennwood Jackson

    theres no way to really aquire a real unemployment number but it isint getting any better. prices are going up and wages are coming down. Theres no way to win. Better pull up your boot straps and grab your guns. Before BIG BROTHER comes to take them away.

  • landofaahs

    Unemployment numbers are mainly bogus. You’d be better off keeping tack of just how many are working. Having said that the better number is GDP. If GDP is not at 2.5%, your economy is not growing jobs.

  • landofaahs

    His brand of socialism has never worked and by his track record, neither has he. He’s a lazy shit stirrer who believes he is entitled.

  • landofaahs

    What about those people who made good money and are now working for 1/2 or less in their downsized job?

  • landofaahs

    Some people should quake with fear when they ponder that God is just. O no.

  • landofaahs

    Consider a $100 bill invested for 5 years at 2%. You have $110 and say you pay a minimum of 15% tax. That leaves you $108.50. meanwhile real inflation went up 5% per year. That’s roughly a $31 loss in buying power. You now have about $77 to show for your original $100 investment. And now they call you a capitalist pig.

  • Sandie

    perzactly!

  • Anonymous

    We are now hearing from Alec Baldwin that if Obama was White he’d be 17 points ahead in the polls, the truth is however that if Obama was White he’d be behind by 20 points.

    The only thing keeping Obama in this race is the fact that he is Black and therefore drawing votes from the, supposedly, non-racist Socialists who would never vote for him in such numbers if he were White,