Friday, August 3, 2012

Another Dismal Unemployment Report, Real Unemployment Rate Jumps to 11.5%

It is really shocking how 3 years after the official end of a recession we have made almost zero progress in reducing unemployment.  Already people are calling this the worst recovery in history and it seems they are right.  Take a look at this updated chart which tracks the number of unemployed and adds back those that have dropped out of the labor force:


Looking at this chart, it's pretty clear that none of Obama's policies worked.  Not the $862 billion stimulus, not the massive transfer of "Obama money" to the undeserving.  We still have 18 million people out of work, either desperately looking for a job or not because they have given up and/or are collecting disability in lieu of a paycheck (more Americans are now going on disability than finding jobs).  Just take a look at the labor force participation rate which is pretty close to a multi-decade low:



Remember it's this horrific deterioration in the participation rate and not Obama's policies that is decreasing the official unemployment rate. When you add back all those people who have dropped out, our unemployment rate increased in July from 11.3 to 11.5%! That is just 0.3% lower than the peak.  See the chart below where the red line is the official unemployment rate and the blue line is the real one:



Anyone who thinks that they want another four years of this should get a lobotomy.

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