Broader U-6 Jobless Rate Up To 16.7%: Why the Jump?

by Phil Izzo - September 3rd, 2010 - Wall Street Journal

The U.S. jobless rate rose to 9.6% in August, but the government’s broader measure of unemployment rose even more to 16.7%, the highest rate since April.

The comprehensive gauge of labor underutilization, known as the “U-6″ for its data classification by the Labor Department, accounts for people who have stopped looking for work or who can’t find full-time jobs.

By another measure which counts people who live on welfare, receive charity, work at volunteer jobs or help out family or friends in exchange for support, the real unemployment rate is 22.5%. What is true is that by any measure, unemployment is high by traditional standards and getting higher. Yet the press is apparently okay with that if it is Obama who is in charge.

Compare articles touting Obama's unemployment numbers at only 9.6% and going up as "encouraging" with Bush unemployment at 5.5% and going down as "disastrous" - according to the Washington Post and the New York Times. When the recession that started under Clinton (and was aggravated by 9/11) started turning the corner under Bush, absolutely no news was accepted as good enough. It was condemned as "the jobless recovery" even as unemployment fell to historic lows. Today the "stronger than expected" recovery is front page news, even as the recession is barely recovering and unemployment is 9.6% and going up. During the early Bush years, real job growth that lowered unemployment was declared "unacceptable" and "meager".

Obama and his lap dog press will do anything to cover up the pending bankruptcy of our nation. What is really annoying is the way that Obama and the press blame the current recession on the actions that worked during Bush's early years. In reality it was Bush's adoption of progressive stimulus and bailouts in his final two years that started the current mess. Obama doesn't blame those actions though because he approved of them. He blames the earlier actions to lower taxes and increase freedom for the current collapse. I suppose that makes sense to him, but it is bizarre to me. Those actions annoyed Obama because the jobs being created were in the private sector. Obama's "10 years of mistakes caused the current problems" is an attempt to misdirect people from the fact that it was the two years of progressive actions under Bush and two more years under Obama that we really should blame. Bush may have pushed us to the edge of the cliff, but it was clearly Obama who pushed us over and keeps stomping on our finger tips in an effort to make us drop to the bottom.

The press may be pleased with Obama but the American people are not buying the scam.