Question about all these job numbers...

[vi5]

Now when they say the economy added 289K new jobs this past month, is that a net gain? Does that mean that no jobs were lost? How does that number interconnect with unemployment? How does unemployment stay flat but 289K new jobs be added?

Can someone offer a quick and dirty explanation?

[molly]

1. McDonalds has quite a turnover.

[KalicoKitty]

22. And, Wal-Marts are popping up all over the country....

Wages...about $8. an hour, no benefits!!!!

[mountainvue]

26. I had a potential

client call me to see how much of a house I could qualify her for. She's a department manager at Wal-Mart, has been for three years and grosses $1400 a month.

[Trajan]

2. BE skeptical ....

I certainly am ...

The news is CONSTANTLY relating stories of layoffs: even this week there were THOUSANDS of layoffs ...

Someone is saying that mom and pop stores are picking up the slack ? ...

WHERE is the PROOF that these jobs exist ? ...

It's an 'enronized' crock of BS, like every other bit of information from this criminal cabal ....

I dont believe it one bit ....

[rkc3]

4. You need to look...

at where the jobs were created.

There's a big difference between Wal-Mart jobs and manufacturing/professional jobs. The difference in salaries and the impact these salaries have on the rest of economy are huge.

I saw a lobbyist last week who talked about the disparity between a Wal-Mart cashier and the average manufacturing position ($375/week vs. $675/week in wages). The disparity is not only bad for the employee but for the community - lower tax base, greater burden shared by those who are more fully employed, reduced services (e.g., poor road maintenance, less money to schools, playgrounds torn up, reduced hours at the library, etc.).

Until we here more about where the jobs were created, we shouldn't get too excited.

[Jane Austin]

23. Mom and Pop stores

are closing right and left.

[StopThief]

3. Net gain.

nfm

[Paradise]

6. hi, are you sure about that?

i thought that was just jobs gained, and not including those lost but i could be wrong. thanks. :)

[StopThief]

10. Yes, it is net job growth.

nfm

[Paradise]

24. thanks, i guess i was misinformed. :) nt

[MARALE]

5. THESE JOBS

They were mostly in the construction and hotel areas, if you read the fine lines. Also the temporary jobs were up 22% and accounted for much of these jobs. I don't thinks they included the job losses. More people have been out of work for longer than ever before.

[tritsofme]

18. The numbers are seasonally adjusted

so the 248k number that came out today does not include seasonal only work, and the jobs are expected to last at least 12 months.

[FloridaPat]

7. They're counting the jobs created in Iraq. They are also

figuring that a lot of the unemployed have started their own companies, and that these companies must have at least one employee, so they've done a little math and came up with phantom employees to add to the list. All lies. The unemployment numbers are so screwed up after 3 years of fiddling with them that they are useless.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

8. I think people know what's going on here

people know what they feel, no amount of "Elaine Chao fudge" will change that. Low paying jobs don't pay for gas!

[Jeep]

9. It might not be that simple

An net increase of 248,000 jobs in May

The largest growth sectors were professional services, healthcare, financial services, construction, hospitality and manufacturing.

Average weekly earnings continued to increase in May by .3%, and have increased year to date by 2.2%.

1.4 million net increase in jobs since August, 2003.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

Whatever we do from a political perspective, it doesn't help matters to deny the statistics. You can end up looking really foolish.

[StopThief]

11. You're obviously too new to realize. . . . .

the truth around here. Bad news is gospel, good news is lies. Get it? (/sarcasm):hi:

[Trajan]

14. Healthy Skepticism is a virtue ....

I know Ken Lay, John Ashcroft, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz occasionally tell the truth: ... just not to us ....

[LittleApple81]

17. Found this on another thread. Interesting and funny at the same time!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=602086#602128

[LittleApple81]

12. Statistics under Bush are another way to lie. I will wait until

somebody with real knowledge analyzes this. Anything that comes out of this administration tends to be bullshit.

[Trajan]

13. These are REAL stats ? ...

http://www.nypost.com/business/23936.htm

WHAT ARE THEY SMOKING AT THE LABOR DEPT.?

By JOHN CRUDELE

May 11, 2004 -- DON'T get too excited about all those new jobs that were supposed to have been created in April.
I'm not going to waste a lot of my precious space on this, but the bottom line is that most of the 288,000 jobs that the Labor Department says were created last month may not really exist.

They could be figments of statisticians' optimism.

Anyone who plodded through my column last Thursday knows I predicted that job growth in April would be better than the 160,000 to 170,000 jobs that the "pros" were anticipating.

But I also said, quite emphatically I hope, that the stronger growth would be an illusion - the result of the Labor Department's computers making happy predictions about seasonal job creation that could neither be verified nor justified.

-snip-

I love a good story now and then .... but cmon ...

BTW: werent you banned ? ...

[molly]

15. When people run out of unemployment insurance

the government counts them as "returning to work".

[mhr]

19. Wrong, The Bulk Of These Jobs Were Created With Birth/Death Model

That means they were created out of whole cloth based on assumptions.

The BLS has no clue if these jobs actually exist. To Be more precise, the BLS "assumes" that any economic growth creates jobs. So the BLS takes the growth and invents jobs. There is no verification that these jobs actually exist.

In other words it is a process ripe for politicall manipulation.

In the real world, many professional types are now listing their extended unemployment as self employed. The bulk of these people are no more self employed than the man in the moon.

I know many people that are using this ploy to keep the resume from looking so bad.

The BLS uses this phenomena to their advantage to claim that hundreds of thousands of people are now working for themselves and hence new jobs have been created.

Totally bogus!

[Jane Austin]

16. It's summer. Have these numbers been seasonally adjusted?

Seems like if about two kids from every high school in the nation got jobs, that would be 250,000 . . . or more.

[tritsofme]

20. Yes, they are seasonally adjusted.

The non seasonally adjusted number is about +1 million.

[goddess40]

21. Robert Reich and jobs

Reich just explained we are still 1 million jobs in the hole. These are not new workers but many are workers returning to jobs they lost in the Bush years. He also said they are lower paid than previous jobs and most do not have health insurance.

[Deja Q]

25. Like his* mind, his figures are banal and devoid of quality

289k jobs.

Good.

All retail jobs at $7/hr, I bet.

I've seen lots of rubbish big-name retail stores cropping up, but that's all. :-(

Compared to the original 3 million jobs his* policies killed off, 289k high paying managerial jobs wouldn't make a difference.