“Real” Jobless Rate at 11%, but Dems Aim Higher

December 14, 2011

Top Democrats Rally Around Job-Destroying Actions Despite Continued Proof of Weak Economy

In a bizarre statment early this week, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz denied that unemployment has increased under President Obama even as one measure showed that unemployment may be as high as 11% due to the shockingly high number of discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs.
Other economic numbers out this week continue to signal economic weakness that will slow any improvement in the job market.
Yet despite this economic gloom, Democrats continue to play political games, defending their job-destroying policies and sabotaging bipartisan initiatives that would create thousands of new jobs. Indeed, Democrats’ actions to delay construction of the Keystone XL pipeline have already led to the destruction of jobs. How many more jobs must be lost before Democrats abandon their commitment to job-destroying policies?

BACKGROUND

In a bizarre statement early this week, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz denied that unemployment has increased under President Obama even as one measure showed that unemployment may be as high as 11% due to the shockingly high number of discouraged workers who have stopped looking for jobs:

“THE REAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS 11 PERCENT”: “But today, the most important sentence isn’t a report on something that just happened, but a fresh look at something that’s been happening for the last three years. In particular, it’s this sentence by the Financial Times’ Ed Luce, who writes, ‘According to government statistics, if the same number of people were seeking work today as in 2007, the jobless rate would be 11 percent.'” (Ezra Klein, “Wonkbook: The Real Unemployment Rate is 11 Percent,” The Washington Post, 12/12/2011)

OOPS: DNC CHAIR DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ “SAYS (WRONGLY) JOBLESS RATE FELL UNDER OBAMA”: (“Chair of DNC Says (Wrongly) Jobless Rate Fell Under Obama,”MarketWatch, 12/12/2011)

PERCENT OF AMERICANS THAT HAVE A JOB OR ARE LOOKING FOR ONE “HAS FALLEN FROM 62.7 PERCENT TO 58.5 PERCENT” SINCE 2007, A 4.2 PERCENT DROP: “Since 2007, the percent of the population that either has a job or is actively looking for one has fallen from 62.7 percent to 58.5 percent. That’s millions of workers leaving the workforce, and it’s not because they’ve become sick or old or infirm. It’s because they can’t find a job, and so they’ve stopped trying. That’s where Luce’s calculation comes from. If 62.7 percent of the country was still counted as in the workforce, unemployment would be 11 percent.” (Ezra Klein, “Wonkbook: The Real Unemployment Rate is 11 Percent,” The Washington Post, 12/12/2011)

REAL “UNDEREMPLOYMENT” RATE “NEAR 20 PERCENT”: “In that sense, the real unemployment rate — the apples-to-apples unemployment rate — is probably 11 percent. And the real un- and underemployed rate — the so-called “U6″ — is near 20 percent.” (Ezra Klein, “Wonkbook: The Real Unemployment Rate is 11 Percent,” The Washington Post, 12/12/2011)

1.9 MILLION JOBS LOST SINCE OBAMA TOOK OFFICE: (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Accessed 12/13/2011)

Other economic numbers out this week continue to signal economic weakness that will slow any improvement in the job market:

“U.S. RETAIL SALES CLIMB LESS THAN FORECAST AT SLOWEST PACE IN FIVE MONTHS”: “U.S. retail sales rose in November at the slowest pace in five months, indicating faster job growth may be needed to spark the biggest part of the economy.

“The 0.2 percent gain in sales followed a 0.6 percent advance in October that was more than initially reported, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Economists projected a 0.6 percent November increase, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Purchases excluding automobiles also rose 0.2 percent.” (Alex Kowalski, “U.S. Retail Sales Climb Less than Forecast at Slowest Pace in Five Months,” Bloomberg, 12/13/2011)

NFIB SMALL BUSINESS OPTIMISM REMAINS “AT LOW LEVEL”: “The NFIB was resistant to putting a positive spin on the numbers, however. ‘The numbers have been depressing for so long, any little progress looks good,‘ the report said. ‘The new reading is still well below the average reading prior to 2008 by 8 huge points and below the comparable level in the recovery that started in 2001 by 14 points,’ the NFIB said.” (“NFIB December Index Ticks Higher, Still At Low Level,” Dow Jones Newswires, 12/13/2011)

NUMBER OF JOB OPENINGS DIPS IN OCTOBER, REMAINS FAR BELOW PRE-RECESSION LEVELS: “There were 3.27 million available jobs at the end of October, down from September’s upwardly revised 3.38 million, according to the Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey released on Tuesday. Monthly job openings — unfilled, posted vacancies that employers plan to fill within 30 days — help describe demand for labor. The number has consistently hovered below the 4.4 million openings registered in December 2007, before the 2008-2009 recession.” (“Job Openings Slip in October,” Reuters, 12/13/2011)

Yet despite this economic gloom, Democrats continue to play political games, defending their job-destroying policies and sabotaging bipartisan initiatives that would create thousands of new jobs. Indeed, Democrats’ actions to delay construction of the Keystone XL pipeline have already led to the destruction of jobs. How many more jobs must be lost before Democrats abandon their commitment to job-destroying policies?:

60 WORKERS LAID OFF, LOCAL JOB MARKET ON HOLD DUE TO DEMOCRATS’ POLITICAL GAMES OVER KEYSTONE XL PROJECT: “Layoffs and a brief company shutdown is what employees face at Welspun Tubular Company, which makes steel pipes for the oil industry. Company leaders say miles of pipe are on the property and that has caused five dozen employees to lose their jobs. … But plans are delayed on the federal level. Now leaders say the local job market is affected. ‘We had to make a staffing reduction with some of the temporary employees. Due to the KXL pipeline not being shipped out. We have 500 miles of pipe just sitting in the yard, expected to be shipped out, that some of the employees were working on,’ said President Dave Delie.” (Hubert Tate, “Welspun Announces Company Cutbacks,” Fox 16, 12/12/2011)

KEYSTONE PROJECT PROJECTED TO CREATE MORE THAN 20,000 “SHOVEL-READY” JOBS: (Editorial, “Keystone Cop-Out,” The Wall Street Journal, 11/11/2011)

LONG-TERM JOBS IMPACT: UP TO 130,000 JOBS: “Many of those 20,000 jobs on the construction of the pipeline would have been filled by skilled union members. Eventually, the completed pipeline was expected to result in as many as 130,000 jobs, many of them on the upper Texas Coast, where the heavy oil would be refined into 700,000 barrels of oil daily.” (Editorial, “Keystone Pipeline is the Wrong Call,” The Houston Chronicle, 11/11/2011)

FMR. TOP WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: KEYSTONE OPPONENTS “NAÏVE”: (Sean Pasternak, “Goolsbee Says U.S. Opponents of TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline are Naive,” Bloomberg, 11/28/2011)

MORE GOOLSBEE: CANADIAN TAR SANDS WILL BE DEVELOPED WHETHER AMERICA GETS INVOLVED OR NOT: ” ‘It’s a bit naïve to think the tar sands would not be developed if they don’t build that pipeline,’ said Goolsbee, speaking today in Toronto at the Economic Club of Canada. ‘Eventually, it’s going to be built. It may go to the Pacific, it may go through Nebraska, but it’s going to be built somewhere.'”(Sean Pasternak, “Goolsbee Says U.S. Opponents of TransCanada’s Keystone Pipeline are Naive,” Bloomberg, 11/28/2011)