Regular readers of this blog know that I have consistently warned of the president’s frequent touting of lower unemployment being far from the truth.
While the media continues to drink the Obama administration’s Kool Aid, those of us who know how the figure is derived, know it is another administration lie.
(Graphic courtesy nation.foxnews.com)
Last week, a friend called my attention to a piece by Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of the Gallup organization. Subsequently, his story, The Big Lie, has been getting some media attention. In it, he points out, as I have, that if someone is unemployed and has given up looking for a job over the past four weeks, the Department of Labor does not count that individual as unemployed. Clifton reports that some 30 million Americans are not counted.
Also, if someone is an out-of-work engineer, healthcare worker, construction worker or retail manager, who performs a minimum of one hour of work in a week and is paid at least $20, he/she is not counted as unemployed, according to Clifton.
In another example cited by Clifton, a person with a degree in chemistry who is working 10 hours part time because it is all he/she can find is not counted as unemployed.
Today, when you hear the new unemployment figure; ignore it. It’s meaningless.
