Obama Says Employment Trends Are Improving; But Remains Focused on Job Creation

[usregimechange]

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Obama said the jobs numbers released yesterday indicate that the job loss trend is improving, but that his administration remains committed to accelerating these trends and putting more Americans back to work. Next week, the President will announce additional ideas about growing the economy and adding jobs to our economy.

Video:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2009/12/05/weekly-address-pushing-forward-jobs

"Yesterday, the numbers released by the Labor Department reflected a continuing positive trend of diminishing job loss." -Obama

[Craftsman]

1. I do not believe the job number

This reminds me of the first 5 months of 2008, when the price of gasoline went from $2/gal to $4+ (MOL) and the BLS Claimed that the price of gasoline actually declined for the purposes of calculating their inflation number.

Real unemployment is about 17% and this does not count under employment.

[fasttense]

2. What I find interesting and confusing is the number of people on extended unemployment.

According to BLS data, the number of people unemployed:
for less than 5 weeks is 2.806 million, this has declined for 10 months from a high of over 3.5 million.
for 5 to 14 weeks is 3.526 million, this has declined for 3 months from a high of over 4.1 million.
for over 15 weeks is 9.050 million, has continually increased with NO sign of a decline.
for over 27 weeks is 5.887 million, this has continually increased with NO sign of a decline.

The average and median number of weeks unemployed is also increasing, with NO sign of a decline.

I would think all the numbers would be declining if the number of unemployed each month was getting smaller. The people who have been unemployed for over 27 weeks don't have to wait for those unemployed for 5 weeks to get job. Usually it does take a little longer to get a job if you have been unemployed for a long time but you should still be seeing some kind of a decline in long term unemployment yet you are NOT.

I wonder why?