McClatchy: Low unemployment rate hides rise in longterm jobless

[babylonsister]

Low unemployment rate hides rise in longterm jobless
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Monday, February 18, 2008



WASHINGTON — Bill Clinton's campaign famously defined the 1992 election with the phrase, "It's the economy, stupid." Today, "It's the jobs, stupid."

The latest employment figures, released in late January, showed a 52-month streak of job creation ending with a loss of 17,000 jobs in January. The Bush administration acknowledged the contraction, but pointed to the national unemployment rate of 4.9 percent to say that the labor market wasn't a harbinger of recession.

A closer look at unemployment data by McClatchy, however, found that jobless Americans are spending more time looking for work and that those who can't find work now make up a greater share of the unemployed.

Several measures of unemployment, in fact, show that the workforce is under the kind of stress not seen since March 2001, when the U.S. economy entered a nine-month recession, followed by a so-called jobless recovery.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/28014.html

[blondeatlast]

1. Let us count the ways: Long term joblessness not included in official statistics,

just today, the economic indicator official website slated for closure due to it's "wanting to spend more time with family"--oopsie--budget woes, I mean, what other glaring, obvious indicators that this Republican presidency has been an unmitigated econimic disaster for Americans from day 1?

Those are fresh in my mind, but I know they have found hundreds of ways to skew and obfuscate the tried and true methods of measuring economic strength.

A little help out there, if anyone has it?