Speaking to a crowd in Allentown, Pa. -- the first stop on Obama's multi-city jobs tour -- the president touted Friday's government report showing the nation's unemployment rate dropped to 10 percent in November.
Several issues with this;
- First off, the numbers in the article make no sense at all.
- Second, for the week in question it was a Holiday week, in our State, State offices were closed both Thursday AND Friday. Guess he’s expecting 5 days of work to get done in 3 days? (In a government office? Now that’s funny!)
- Third, again in our state, the online system crashed on Sunday into Monday, see the second point.
The Labor Department's Friday report marked an improvement over October's 111,000 jobs lost. But the respite may be temporary, as many economists expect the jobless rate to keep climbing into next year as the economy struggles to generate enough jobs for the 15.4 million people out of work.
The unemployment rate fell to 10 percent from 10.2 percent in October, where economists expected it to remain.
If part-time workers who want full time jobs and laid off workers who have given up looking for work are included, the so-called underemployment rate also fell, to 17.2 percent from 17.5 percent in October.
There was other positive news in the report. The average work week rose to 33.2 hours, from a record low of 33 hours. Economists expect employers will increase hours for their current workers before hiring new ones.
The department also increased its job estimate for September, to a loss of 139,000 from 219,000, and for last month, to 111,000 from 190,000.
I’m sorry but the whole thing smacks of manipulated statistics, unfortunately truth and clarity are items no longer coming out of our halls of Government.
FOXNews.com - Obama Touts Dip in Unemployment on Jobs Tour
Added 12-9-09
Main Street Tour Faces Frosty Greeting
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- When President Barack Obama launches a multicity tour Friday to take Main Street's temperature, he will likely get a cool reception from business leaders and workers here who say he hasn't delivered.
Swing voters in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley helped Mr. Obama win this pivotal, populous state. But the region's jobless rate inched up another half percentage point in October to 9.8%. About 41,000 people are out of work, the highest number since 1984.
Small businesses that power the economy here are starved for credit and laying people off. Stimulus dollars for roads, bridges, schools and social services are mired in Washington and state bureaucracy.
"In the last two or three months people are getting disillusioned," says Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, a Democrat. "If he's kicking off this tour and nothing of substance comes out of it, it's gonna kill him," Mr. Pawlowski says
Stimulus dollars for roads, etc etc etc mired in Washington and State Bureaucracy, change, change, changechangechange. The inmates are running the asylum and no one seems to notice. Yet the Prince of Audacity can claim they have saved jobs, all while over 17% of our working population is un/under employed. Small business IS what makes this Nation Great (along with her people), yet this administration has done everything it can it would seem to block small business and control big business.
