Well, the latest economic figures are out.\u00a0 And as has been the case since January 2009, the numbers and trends . . . well, they suck.<\/p>\n
First:\u00a0 the “official” unemployment rate declined last month \u2013 from 5.0% to 4.9%.\u00a0 That\u2019s good, right?<\/p>\n
Um, not really.\u00a0 You see, the number of US residents employed<\/em> actually DECLINED last month \u2013 even though the “official” unemployment rate also<\/u> declined.\u00a0 While approximately 43,000 people appear to have lost their jobs in October, it seems that that an additional 152,000 also simply quit looking for work during the month.\u00a0 So though the number of people working declined, because of how the “official” unemployment rate is calculated that number \u201cwent down\u201d.<\/p>\n Yeah, that official \u201cunemployment\u201d rate is a wonderful<\/em> measure of how well the economy is doing.\u00a0 Today, 43,000 fewer people are working than the previous month, and 3x that many got discouraged and quit even looking for work \u2013 and the number shows \u201cimprovement\u201d.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n As I\u2019ve repeatedly said, a much better statistic to look at to determine the US economy\u2019s performance is the labor participation rate.\u00a0 That is defined as the fraction of the US civilian population that could work that is either working or looking for work.\u00a0 And that measure DID DECLINE last month \u2013 from 62.9% to 62.8%<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n And in case you’re wondering, no \u2013 THAT decline is decidedly NOT good news.\u00a0 What that means is that more than 94,600,000 people who could be working . . . aren’t.<\/p>\n That’s the second-highest number in US history.\u00a0 The highest number occurred earlier this year, in May.<\/p>\n A labor participation rate of 63% or less is, to be blunt, an indicator that the US economy is in the freaking toilet.\u00a0 Prior to the last several years of economic hard times, the last time the US labor participation rate was 63% or lower was during April 1978<\/strong> \u2013 or 38 1\/2 years ago<\/em><\/span>.\u00a0 That was during Jimmy “We Don’t Need No Steenkin’ Economy” Carter’s\u00a0 Administration.<\/p>\n The US labor participation rate was 65.7% in January 2009.\u00a0 From there, it declined steadily to roughly 63% range, reaching 63% in November 2013.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been 63% or less ever since then \u2013 which means that the US economy has been absolutely in the crapper for a full three years<\/span> now.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to ask this question:\u00a0 \u201cAre you better off now than you were 8<\/strong> years ago?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to bet the answer for virtually everyone is, \u201cOh, hell no!\u201d<\/p>\n And remember this:\u00a0 if Clintoon\u2019s elected POTUS next week, we\u2019ll get at least<\/span> 4 more years of the current Administration\u2019s failed economic policies \u2013 or worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"