The unemployment rate and the growth of government

[RichV]

Something I'm curious about, and not sure exactly where to snag the numbers. Don Evans has been on TV all morning saying that the new mediocre job numbers are proof that * is a demigod. We all know better. CNN just flashed that of the new jobs this month, 37,000 were government jobs. Now... of the jobs that they have created during this term (even with net losses of a million or so)... how many were government jobs? I suspect the figure is high.

I'd like to see Kerry bring that up in the context of the party of smaller government. Hmm.

[kerryin2004]

1. How do they calculate the unemployent %?

They say it is at 5.4%, but when you are adding to the workforce each month, and the number still has not caught up with employment in 2000, how does it stay flat? We are still in a deficit of 1.7 milion jobs since the shrub took office..Added are 125,000 job searchers each month.. How do they equate into the unemployment rate, or do they, and do they stil remove persos who are no longer receiving unemployment compensation? I would be willing to bet that the if we calculated the number correctly then our economy is in worse shape then that of Europe..


Last question..Why is the dollar becoming icreasingly weaker against the british pound and the euro? The pound is now double the dollar and the euro is 1.33 of a dollar.. Add to the fact that the Canadian dollar and the Australian dollar are getting close to equal with us..Never has the dollar been so weak in world markets.Is this a good thing?

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. It stays flat because as people lose their unemployment benefits

they are taken off the rolls of the unemployed.

The unemployment rate is not an absolute percentage of ALL people who aren't employed in the country; it's only the percentage of people collecting unemployment.

And since, for the most part, you only get unemployment for 18 months, that means that every month even though there is more and more unemployment, the numbers can look stable because there's also another group who are all done with their unemployment benefits and so aren't being counted.

I agree with you - if we could count the actual number of real unemployed, and chart that number every month of Chimpy McWarCriminal's Misadministration, that it would be a continuously upward slope.

As to the dollar being weaker, I imagine much of it has to do with the incredible debt we are generating. But I'm not an economist, so I could be wrong.