How Many Jobs Were Created in May 2012?

May 2015 Jobs News Highlights

All Jobs and Unemployment Reports For 2011 through 2015 Indexed HERE!

The following numbers are for May 2012.  For current numbers, please click one of the above links.

69,000 new jobs were created in the month of May 2012 (in seasonally adjusted numbers).

The private sector generated 82,000 new jobs, but the government sector continued to shed jobs, 15,000 jobs, in May 2012.  


422,000 more people reported themselves as working in May 2012. 
(The above are all seasonally-adjusted numbers.)

      

The unemployment rate increased one-tenth of one percent to 8.2%, increasing from 8.1% in April.  The unemployment rate has been under 8.4% every month this year.  Last year, the unemployment rate exceeded or was equal to 9.0% for 7 months out of the year.  The increase in the unemployment rate this month was due to people entering or re-entering the labor force. 


In terms of numbers, the civilian labor force (the people either working or actively looking for work) is at a new high of 155,007,000 people.  We have never had this many people in the civilian labor force before.  The labor force participation rate (the percent of people in the civilian non-institutional population 16+ who are either working or looking for work) edged up .2% (ten-tenths of a percent) to 63.8% this month. 

Has Unemployment Increased Since 2011? In 2012?

No!

Unemployment is lower and employment is higher than it was in 2011!  All measures of underemployment are lower than they were in 2011 as well.

This is an example of how misleading the media can be.  I see so many searches on "jobs lost in 2011" or "number of jobs lost so far in 2012."


We have had 26 (twenty-six) straight months of job growth in the private-sector in this country, and 19 (nineteen) straight months (starting after the Census 2010 people were let go) of job growth overall.

But I hear the "real" unemployment rate is 14 or 16 or 20 percent!  The government is lying to us!

No, it is not.  Keep watching this blog for more information about the supposed "true" unemployment rate in the next few days.   And ponder a bit:  If you were counting the unemployed, who would you count as unemployed?  Who would you not count as unemployed?  Would you only count people looking for work?  In the last month?  In the last year?  Would you count retired people?  Kids in high school?  Parents at home with children?  Disabled people?         

Here's a little graph on the various "pieces" of employment and unemployment and how they compare for the months of April and October for the past four years:

Someone has got to be lying!  I've heard that MILLIONS of people are dropping out of the labor force.  This shows that ONLY a million people are discouraged now, that number is coming down, and a half a million people were discouraged BEFORE everything hit the skids in 2008.

Well, yeah.. How about that?

People ARE leaving the labor force, but there is no indication that millions of them are dropping out due to discouragement.  The largest number of people dropping out of the labor force are people 55 and over, most of whom are probably retiring.  More about this as well in the coming days.  

Let's look at the above chart.  These are the "pieces" of the labor force that create the U-6 alternate un/underemployment rate.

• The "official" unemployed are people who are unemployed and actively (within the last month) looking for work.
• The part-timers who want full-time work are people who are working part-time because they cannot find full-time work.  
• The "discouraged" are people who have looked for work in the past year, but not in the past month because they are discouraged, not for any other reason.
• The other "marginal workers" are people who were available to work and have looked for work in the past year, but have not looked for work in the past month due to family responsibilities,  school or training, illness, child-care, transportation problems, or other similar issues.
   

How Many Jobs Were Created in 2011? (Click HERE!)

A few other facts about 2011 and 2012:

• Number of jobs total end of 2010:  130,346,000
• Number of jobs total end of 2011/beginning of 2012:  132,186,000
• Number of jobs total now:  132,989,000

Private sector jobs:

• Number of private sector jobs end of 2010:  108,088,000
• Number of private sector jobs end of 2011/beginning of 2012:  110,193,000
• Number of private sector jobs now:  111,020,000

Number of People Employed:

• Number of people employed end of 2010:  139,220,000,  
• Number of people employed end of 2011/beginning of 2011:  140,790,000
• Number of people employed now:  141,865,000

Unemployment (U-3) rate:

• End of 2010:  9.4%
• End of 2011/Beginning of 2011:  8.5%
• Now:  8.1%

Underemployment (U-6) rate:

• End of 2010:  16.6%     
• End of 2011/Beginning of 2011:  15.2%
• Now:  14.5%

Why Don't People Want Jobs?

The Unemployment Puzzle:  People Don't Want Jobs

Despite the continued high number of people who are among the long-term unemployed, we also have a record number of people who are not in the labor force and say that they do NOT want a job!

First of all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics asks people who are "not in the labor force" (unemployed and not actively looking for work) whether or not they "want a job".  About 93% of people who are "not in the labor force" say that they do NOT want a job!

The biggest conundrum in unemployment these days is the juxtaposition of these two sets of facts:

• People are exhausting (running out of) unemployment compensation and the average duration of unemployment is still very high.  This means that some people have been unemployed and looking for work in excess of two or three years, and perhaps have exhausted their unemployment benefits a year or even two years ago.  This must be causing a great deal of misery for those people who have exhausted their unemployment compensation, presumably gone through most or all of their savings, and may have NOTHING left in financial resources.  Right now, we still have 3,892,000 people who are officially unemployed and have been for more than 52 weeks!  
• But all numbers of unemployment and underemployment, including the official unemployment rate AND the number of people who "want a job", are DECLINING.  Yes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics does ask people who are not in the labor force (meaning that they are not actively looking for work) if they "want a job".  The number of people who are "discouraged" (meaning: 1. they looked for work in the past year but not in the past month, 2.  they are available for work.  3.  they did not look for work in the past month because they felt no jobs are available for them) is also declining.  Both the percentages and the numbers of people in these categories are declining.  Not only that, but the number of people who have been unemployed for 52 weeks or longer, while high, is also declining.  Last year, in March 2011, 4,430,000 people were unemployed over a year.  This year, in March 2012, 3,892,000 people were unemployed over a year.  At least 600,000 people who were unemployed (actively looking for work) a year ago are no longer looking for work this year.  Where did they go?    

Many people who notice that fewer people are "officially" unemployed claim that people are dropping out of the labor force (meaning that they are no longer actively looking for work and therefore not counted among the officially unemployed) because, while they still "want a job", they are terribly discouraged about finding work and they are no longer even looking for work.  (To be counted as officially unemployed, you need to be actively looking for work within the past four weeks.)    

But the numbers simply don't support this!  ALL numbers of unemployment and underemployment, including numbers of people who are "discouraged" and who "want a job" but aren't actively looking, are decreasing, as seen on this chart:

The number of people who "want a job" (green line) represent people who are officially "not in the labor force" because they haven't looked for work in the past month, but this is a subset of people who are "not in the labor force".  (Only about 7% of people not in the labor force claim to "want a job" now.) 

However, this number of people who "want a job" but haven't looked for work in the past month includes people who haven't looked for a job for over a year.  It also includes people who haven't looked for a job because they are ill, have family responsibilities, are in school, or are simply "not available to work now".  It also includes people who haven't looked for work recently because they are "discouraged" (red line) and believe there is no work available for them.  (Therefore, the red line people are a subset of the green line people.)

How Many with no Resources?

We really don't know how many people are out there with no resources, particularly compared to other years, such as 2005 or 2007.  As you can see from the chart, at the peak of the last economic cycle when jobs were still plentiful, in 2006 or 2007, we still had millions of people who were among the  unemployed; we still had hundreds of thousands of discouraged workers; we still had millions of people not in the labor force who "want a job".   

One thing that we can tell when we put all of these numbers together is that we don't really have a good idea as to what happens to people who exhaust their unemployment benefits.  One year ago there were 8,300,000 people collecting unemployment benefits (down from a peak of about 12,000,000 two years earlier), and now (March) there are about 6,800,000 people collecting benefits.  1,500,000 fewer people are collecting benefits.  We don't know how many of these people went back to work.  We know that, as we mentioned above, there is a DECREASE in the number of discouraged workers since last year (from 921,000 down to 865,000), and there is also a DECREASE in the number of people who "want a job" compared to last year (6,500,000 down to 6,299,000).  So people who are no longer collecting benefits aren't all looking for work, don't all want a job, and aren't filling the ranks of the "discouraged" workers.      


What has happened to the unemployed and the discouraged? 

Facebook groups and websites for the unemployed still attract many people who are miserable.. .and scared.  But other websites for the unemployed, particularly those aimed at 99ers (people who have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits) seem to have much less activity than they did a year or two ago, and it is unclear if that is meaningful or not.

So.. if the numbers of people who want a job, the numbers who are unemployed (whether short-term or long-term), the number of "discouraged" workers, the numbers of people working part-time who want full-time work have all decreased..  where did those people go?  The "buckets" that have increased are:  1.  The number of employed (including the number employed full-time) and 2.  The number of people who are not in the labor force and DO NOT WANT A JOB.


More people who DO NOT want a job...

We now have 2,490,000 MORE people who are NOT in the labor force and DO NOT want a job than we did a year ago.  (This is mostly due to the Baby Boomers retiring.)  This is an increase of about 3%.  Remember, these people tell the interviewers that they DO NOT want a job.  They are not dropping out of the labor force because they are so discouraged that they can't find work; they are dropping out of the labor force AND they DO NOT WANT A JOB.

More people who ARE working....

We now have 2,270,000 MORE people who are employed than we did a year ago.  (That's an increase of about 1.7%.)  There are studies that seem to show that, while we have more people back at work, many of these people are working at jobs that are below their skill level and many are working temporary, though full-time jobs.  But, nonetheless, they are working vs. dropping out of the labor market.

If you still have assets, you have a choice.

Which makes sense.  If you are in desperate need of money and you no longer have unemployment benefits, how do you survive?  You don't have a choice; if you can find a lousy job, you take it.  But if you no longer have a job and you no longer have unemployment benefits but you DO have assets, you DO have a choice:  Wouldn't you stop looking for work, drop out of the labor force, and scale back your retirement plans rather than take a lousy job, particularly if you are only a few years away from Social Security?  You might not be able to get hired for those lousy jobs anyway.    

Look for more information and a breakdown on the people "not in the labor force" later this week.

All information and numbers used come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics databases and tables and/or monthly employment situation reports.  Details provided upon request.

Weekly Unemployment Initial Claims: Spring Fever Seasonal Adjustments!

Weekly Unemployment Initial Claims:  That Pesky Spring Fever Seasonal Adjustment Factor!

Thursday is weekly initial unemployment claims day.  That is, the Department of Labor Employment and Training Division publish the unemployment claims numbers from the previous week, and it updates prior weeks' unemployment claims numbers.  The pundits wail or exclaim and sometimes the stock market goes up and down depending on these weekly numbers.  Today the numbers went up.  That is, the seasonally adjusted initial claims numbers.     

Now, as usual, the DOL incorporates a seasonal adjustment or weighting factor, as more people are generally laid off during certain weeks or during certain times of the year.  This is the only way that we can get a clear idea of whether claims are going up or down over time.


The seasonal adjustments can be puzzles.

Though the seasonal adjustments are very necessary, they also present conundrums for jobs-numbers watchers such as myself.  The seasonal adjustment factors for weekly claims are more volatile than they are for the monthly numbers.  The DOL anticipates that there are certain weeks of the year in which claims will be much higher than perhaps the week before or the week after.  Seasonal adjustment factors are determined and published about a year in advance.  You can see them HERE.  Type in a year range and hit "Submit".  You can see those weekly seasonal adjustment factors lined up in the middle column of the initial claims numbers labeled "S.F".  You will notice that they range from the 70's up to the 170's.  The real "raw" unadjusted number of initial claims is divided by this seasonal adjustment factor to get the initial claims that are reported by the media. 

Adjustment factor high, claims adjusted down.  Adjustment factor low, claims adjusted up.

If the adjustment factor is over 100, the number of claims are being adjusted down, as this is traditionally a high claims week.  If the adjustment factor is below 100, the number of claims are being adjusted up, as this is traditionally a low claims week.     

Now, over a year or a period of weeks, this will all work out, and we'll get a good sense as to whether or not the number of claims is going down or up.  But take any one week... and it will be hard to read anything into these numbers.  

That April anamoly.

Which brings us to the first and second weeks of April.  

Spring as a whole is a low claims season.  Companies have laid off all of their Christmas and holiday season help and are they starting to hire people for spring.  

Starting in mid-February, the adjustment factors are generally below 100 (low claims) and claims are adjusted up.  Except for the first or second week of April.  The seasonal adjustment factor jumps up above 100 during the first or second week of April, and the DOL expects an increase of about 60,000 up to 90,000 claims between either the last week of March or between the first and second weeks of April.  Warmer weather?  Easter?  Passover?  The start of baseball season?  Daffodils blooming?  The end of the first calendar quarter?  Anyway, after the second week of April, the claims start to come back down and the seasonal adjustment factor falls down below 100.       

This year we did get the expected bump of 60,000 claims at the beginning of April, which was reported today, but the seasonal adjustment factor was only 100.6, not the 107.7 that it was last year.  It's got something to do with the fact that the week (Saturday) ended April 7 last year vs. April 8 this year.  (That doesn't make much sense, but if you look at the pattern of the seasonal adjustment factors over a period of years, you will see that is true.) 

So, if you divide the (expected) higher "raw" number of claims last week, 381,875, by the seasonal adjustment factor of 100.6, last week's initial claims come out to 380,000 in adjusted numbers, which is a jump of something like 13,000 first time claims in seasonally adjusted numbers.

Now.. The seasonal adjustments aren't always right.  They are impacted by weather, which can't be predicted in advance, politics, strikes; all kinds of miscellaneous events.  Last year there was also a jump of about 90,000 in "raw" claims numbers during that first to second week of April, resulting in an adjusted increase of only 16,000 because the adjustment factor was higher.  The last year that the week ended on April 8th, as it did this year, was in 2006.  There was an increase of 61,000 "raw" unadjusted claims, resulting in a seasonally adjusted increase of only 8,000.  Again, the adjustment factor was higher than it was this year.


Who cares?  

Well, it would be great if anyone who starts whining about "unemployment claims are going back up" cares, but I know that's not going to happen soon. 

What difference does the adjustment factor make?  Well, if the adjustment factor this year was 107.7, as it was last year, that would mean that the 381,875 "raw" unadjusted claims would be reported as about 355,000 seasonally adjusted claims (instead of 380,000), a decrease of something like 12,000 and the headlines would be calling out "Unemployment claims down again!" in a very positive context.  If we used the 105.2 adjustment factor that was used the last time that the week ended on April 8th, as it did this year, those 381,875 claims would adjust down to 363,000 initial claims, a decrease of 4,000 initial claims.

So there are two morals to this story:

1. Seasonal adjustments, while important and necessary over time, may skew results on a week-to-week basis; therefore, weekly unemployment initial claims numbers need to be taken with a grain of salt.. due to their variability.
2. Be careful of the naysayers!  There are many people out there who want to jump on any hint of bad news in an attempt to give the country back to the Republicans so that they can continue their rich sponsors' decimation of the middle class.  It sounds extreme, but I don't know how else you might want to explain the corporate takeover of the U.S.                             

Are People "Dropping Out" of the Labor Force Because They are Discouraged?

About those people who are not in the labor force:  Are they dropping out of the labor force because they are discouraged?

Many people theorize that the reason that the number of people not in the labor force, that is, not working and not actively looking for work, is going up is because people are so discouraged by employment prospects that they are dropping out of the labor force; that is, they have stopped looking for work.  But is that true?  

Let's look at a few numbers: 

There are 3,600,000 more people in the "civilian non-institutional population" than in March 2011 a year ago, but only 1,300,000, or about 36% of these additional people have entered the civilian labor force, meaning that they are either working or actively looking for work.  As a result, there are 2,300,000 more people this year who are "not in the labor force". 

Who are these 2,300,000 "new" people who are not in the labor force? 

• Most of them are women.  1,800,000 of the additional people who are not in the labor force are women.  About 500,000 of the additional people who are not in the labor force are men.  
• Most of the "new" people not in the labor force are people over 55.   About 1,700,000 of people not in the labor force this year are people who are over 55.  Another 400,000 are young people 16 to 24 years of age.     
• 97% of these older people who are not in the labor force DO NOT want jobs.  Expect to see more about this. 
• Of the young people 16 to 24 years of age, 18,000,000 are NOT in the labor force, but the overwhelming majority of them, about 15,000,000, are in school and are not working nor are they looking for work at this point in time. 
• The increase in the number of people who have left the labor force is generally because our population is older and people are retiring.  It is NOT because great quantities of people are discouraged.  Less than 1% of the people who are not in the labor force but want a job and are not looking for work say they are not looking for work because they are "discouraged".  Last year, about 1.1% were so discouraged.          

Other Employment and Unemployment Highlights:

• Fewer people unemployed because they were permanently laid off from their jobs:  Though there are still about 12,700,000 people who are unemployed, only 5,900,000 of these people, or 46%, of the unemployed  are unemployed because they were permanently laid off from their jobs.  A year ago, 52% of the unemployed were permanently laid off.  Meanwhile, the percent of the unemployed who are unemployed because they quit their last job has grown from 6% a year ago to about 9% this year, about 1,117,000. 
• The number of people working part-time because they can't get full-time work has continued to decline.  A year ago, about 8,500,000 people were in this situation; today, only 7,700,000 are working part-time but want full-time work.  There was quite a decline in this group just in the last month.  This year, 71% of part-time workers are working part-time by choice.  Last year, 69% of part-time workers were working part-time by choice. 
• Meanwhile, the number of full-time workers has gone up.  81% of workers are working full-time this year; that is, 115,290,000 people.  Last year, 112,604 people, 3 million less, and about 1 percent less, were working full-time. 

They're Lying! 20 Million People Lost Their Jobs in 2011!

How Many People Really Lost Their Jobs in 2011?

How Many Jobs Have Been Created or Lost in 2013 To Date?

Update for all of 2012 HERE: How Many People Lost Their Jobs in 2012?

All Jobs Reports (2011 to 2013) Indexed HERE!

Some will say:  "20 million people lost their jobs!  That's a huge number.  How can anybody say that we're making progress in employment?"

Well, we have to look at the number of people who were laid off compared to the number of people who were hired.. and compared to the number of people who quit:

How Many People Were Laid Off in 2011?  Yes, it's true:  20,041,000

How Many First Time Claims for Unemployment were filed in 2011?  21,688,000

How Many People Quit in 2011?   23,083,000

How Many People Were "Separated" from their work for all reasons in 2011?  46,980,000


So almost 47,000,000 people quit or lost their jobs in 2011.  But.....  

How Many People Were Hired in 2011?  48,416,000


One million more people were hired than people who quit or were laid off in 2011.

How Many New Jobs Were Added in 2011?  1,820,000 total net.

We know that there were a grand total of 1,820,000 jobs added in 2011; 2,091,000 were gained in the private sector, while 271,000 were lost in the government sector.  

We know that the unemployment rate fell from 9.4% in December 2010 to 8.5% in December 2011 (and 8.3% now, as of January 2012).  We know that, while 12,758,000 people are considered "officially unemployed" now, we also know that 1,300,000 FEWER people are reporting themselves as unemployed at the end of 2011, in December, vs. a year ago in December 2010.

But we also know that, in good times and in bad, in improving times and in deteriorating times, people are laid off and people are hired.  The unemployment rate goes down and the job numbers go up when the number of people getting hired exceeds the number of people getting laid off or quitting over a period of time.  The unemployment rate goes up and the job numbers go down when the number of people getting hired is lower than the number of people getting laid off or quitting over a period of time.

Latest Jobs & Unemployment Numbers & Reports HERE!

(Including Jobs Lost and Gained in 2011, 2012, 2013 month by month; jobs numbers year by year 1999, since Obama took office.) 

How Many People Were Laid Off in 2008?  

There was a NET loss of 3,603,000 jobs in 2008.  That is, over 3 million MORE people were laid off or quit than were hired.  

How Many Were Laid Off Compared to How Many Were Hired in 2011?

So let's look at how many people actually were laid off and how many were hired as reported to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and published on their JOLTS (Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey) in 2011.  (I use the latest revisions, which are extracted from the Bureau of Labor Statistics databases.)  The number of 1st Time Unemployment Claims comes from the Weekly Department of Labor report.  It comes close but does not equal the number of people laid off because 1) It is a weekly report, and the Layoff numbers from JOLTS are monthly, 2) Not all people who are laid off apply for unemployment for various reasons.   3)  People who quit may apply for unemployment and collect in some circumstances.

Month	...# Laid off...	#1st Claims	# Quits.......	# Separations	# Hires...	#Job Openings
Jan	1,541,000	2,137,000	1,679,000	3,612,000	3,769,000	2,741,000
Feb	1,620,000	1,570,000	1,910,000	3,825,000	3,986,000	3,025,000
Mar	1,606,000	1,581,000	1,924,000	3,805,000	4,067,000	3,123,000
Apr	1,603,000	2,114,000	1,887,000	3,833,000	4,001,000	2,953,000
May	1,837,000	1,707,000	2,000,000	4,145,000	4,129,000	3,034,000
June	1,773,000	1,711,000	1,904,000	3,993,000	4,058,000	3,169,000
July	1,694,000	2,060,000	1,969,000	3,962,000	3,976,000	3,213,000
Aug	1,687,000	1,644,000	2,006,000	3,960,000	4,060,000	3,129,000
Sept	1,723,000	1,672,000	2,000,000	4,052,000	4,150,000	3,377,000
Oct	1,595,000	2,026,000	1,923,000	3,898,000	4,042,000	3,224,000
Nov	1,718,000	1,585,000	1,955,000	3,986,000	4,132,000	3,118,000
Dec	1,644,000	1,881,000	1,926,000	3,909,000	4,046,000	3,376,000
Total:	20,041,000	21,688,000	23,083,000	46,980,000	48,416,000	37,482,000

(January 2012 initial claims:  1,509,000 for four weeks or 377,500 a week 
compared to January 2011 initial claims:  2,137,000 for five weeks or 427,400 a week.)

Number of People Quitting Now Exceeds the Number Getting Laid Off

First of all, it should be evident that layoffs and initial claims have been coming down over the months.  The numbers popped up again in Spring, then continued downwards.  But more important than the number of layoffs going down is that the number of quits has gone up and now outpaces the rate of layoffs every month.  (This wasn't true in 2009 or in 2010.)  This means that companies can no longer count on employees not leaving.. that can only be good for the labor market as a whole. 


As a result of fewer layoffs and more people quitting, we now have more people getting hired than we have total "separations" ("Separations" are the total of people leaving an employer for all reasons, including being laid off, people quitting, people retiring, and "other".) 

Of the 48,000,000 hires that employers reported in 2011, in simple percentages, 41% were replacements for people laid off, 48% were replacements for people who quit, about 8% were replacements for people who left for "other" reasons (including retirement), and 3% represented expansion; that is, new employees, not replacements.

Things are moving in the right direction.

There is just no way that anyone can look at these numbers over the course of a year and see anything negative in them... other than we need more of the same at an accelerating pace.  We had about 5,000 new hires a month during the mid-2000's, and that is what we need to make a big dent in the unemployment rate.  

Shame on You! Merry Christmas, Mr. Conservative Scrooge!

Dear, dear Huffington Post... So many Grinches and Scrooges have made it their home in recent months and years. They are always trying to get the last word in against those "libs" and others they dislike (such as Democrats and progressives.)

Today's "Shame on you" is dedicated to this modern day Scrooge, calling himself something like "yesIamaconservative", posting at this article about the recent two-month tax cut and unemployment extension deal at Huffington Post.  I didn't have time for a complete reply to him; perhaps some of you can help me.

In his tome about the two-month tax cut and unemployment extension deal, Mr. Conservative Scrooge  ranted:

WOW - BIG Victory!! $160.00 ... but relative to past 3 years I guess anything counts.

Where is the "what's best for America" congress gone? It's now all about ME - what's in it for ME - what are you going to do for ME.

Border security - good for the country - but don't dare stop ME and ask for proof of citizenshi­p or don't you dare deport ME. Give ME amnesty.

Entitlemen­t reform - good and necessary for country - but dare touch MY medicare or welfare.

Taking taxes from SS - bad for country - but it's good for ME to get $160.00 in my paycheck.

Long term unemployme­nt - bad for country - but keep paying ME to be unemployed and you'll get my vote

Voter Id to validate legal right to vote - good for country - but don't dare ask ME to have to produce one - I'm too disadvanta­ged

Long term welfare - bad for country as it keeps people in poverty - but don't dare touch MY welfare because then I'll scream that you are racist

Poor govt. schools - bad for country - and certainly don't let me make any decision that could possibly improve my educationa­l choices

Give ME something and I'll vote for you. Don't and I won't.

Thanks you Democrats, Liberals and OWS believers everywhere --- WHERE IS MY TROPHY??

Shame on you!

I only had time for this quick retort:

“Anybody who thinks that long term unemployme­nt extensions are "paying people not to work" is not a good person. Do you really believe that that the unemployed in this (still) 4-jobseekers- for- every-job economy are enjoying the life of Riley lazing on their couch while they collect their $300 a week?  If you really believe this, then you are a person lacking in compassion or common sense. Shame on you.”

He shot back:

"All this bloody compassion you libs. express is just pandering and doesn't help people improve their lives - it keeps them in poverty. If that's not obvious - then indeed there is no common sense.

Shame on me for wanting people to take personal responsibi­lity and improve their lives vs. living FOR GENERATION­S depending on the govt.

Right - I'm the shameful one. Merry Christmas ..."

Yes, Mr. Scrooge, you are the shameful one.  I can just hear you ranting, "Are there no prisons?  Are there no workhouses?"  as you blame the 13,300,000 unemployed people, the 40-odd percent who don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes, the millions without health insurance, and the millions who are at or close to poverty level for their predicament.  And you convince yourself that many of these formerly middle class people are in their situations because they are the result of "generations of government programs", or because they didn't "plan well", "make good choices", or "work hard".  


Bah Humbug!


I can only say to you, Mr. Conservative Scrooge:  Bah Humbug!  And wish that those three ghosts will visit you tonight... but that is really too much to ask for. 


To everybody reading this:  Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and have a Festive Festivus for the rest of us!  And, as Tiny Tim would say, God bless us, each and every one!    


***********************
Update December 26, 2011:


Here are several other articles written in the last few months on the same theme:  


Conservatives Put a Spin on Food Stamps


47% of the People Pay No Taxes!


The Rich Deserve What They Have; They Have Earned It

How Many Jobs Created in 2011 to date? (November update)

December 2012 data has been released, and this report is currently being updated with December data.  Please check back later in the day!

How many jobs were created in all of 2011, from December 2010 to November 2011?   1,448,000

How many private-sector jobs have been created in 2011?   1,711,000

Have jobs been lost in 2011?  NO.  I'll repeat that:  NO jobs have been lost (net) in 2011. 

The numbers on this page reflect activity as of November 2011.  For the latest reports and numbers, click one of the links below.


2011 Jobs Summary

How Many Jobs Were Created in all of 2011?

What Was the Maximum Number of Jobs Created by Month by Obama? (May 2012 update)

How Many Jobs Have Been Created in the Last Two Years? In the Last Three Years?  Since 1999?  HERE!

Other Latest (May, all 2012 & all 2011) reports HERE
          

Jobs Created Month by Month (Private & Govt) HERE

• In seasonally adjusted numbers, 1,448,000 jobs have been created in 2011.  That's 132,000 jobs created per month in 2011.
• In "raw" unadjusted numbers, 1,909,000 jobs have been created in 2011.  That's 174,000 jobs created per month in 2011.
• In terms of total jobs and private-sector jobs, we have ONLY JOB GAINS in 2011.  

How many private-sector jobs were created in all of 2011, from December 2010 to October 2011?  Have private-sector jobs been created or  lost in 2011?

How Many Jobs Has Obama Gained or Lost? (November 2011 update)

Private/Govt Jobs Gained/Lost by Month 2011, 2012, 2013 HERE

Latest (2013 to date and all 2011) reports and jobs numbers HERE!!

The following are numbers for November 2011.  For the latest numbers & reports, please click one of the links above.

How has Obama done on jobs?  
2,462,000 gained since "trough" of recession.


How Has Obama done on private-sector jobs?
2,947,000 gained since the "trough" of the recession.


How many jobs have been lost or gained during the Obama administration?  Have more new jobs been created or have more jobs been lost under Obama to date?  Still in negative jobs territory in net jobs gained/lost.

(Remember that monthly jobs numbers are NET numbers:  That is, the number of jobs GAINED after all jobs lost are subtracted, or the number of jobs LOST after all jobs gained are subtracted.  Increases in the monthly number of jobs mean that more jobs were gained than lost.  Decreases in the monthly number of jobs mean that more jobs were lost than gained.) 

Breakdown of private and government jobs lost and gained?  HERE!

These questions will be answered.  Keep reading!   All data based on the latest numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.    

Other current & former (All 2012 & 2011) reports HERE!! 

Summary of November jobs activity: 

Jobs increased 120,000 in total in November 2011 (vs. a revised increase of 100,000 in October). Private sector jobs continued to increase while government sector jobs continued to decrease. Private sector jobs increased by 140,000 (vs. 117,000 in October), while government jobs decreased by 20,000 (vs. a decrease of 17,000 in October).  

Is it true that over 2 million private sector jobs have been created in the Obama administration as the Democrats claim?

(Summary of gross and net jobs activity since Obama was inaugurated is below the jump---  Keep reading!)